On Jan 6, the non-executive director of the trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust : S7OU +0.88% (APTT), Dai Yung Huei, increased his deemed interest from 19.18 per cent to 19.20 per cent. This saw 471,900 units of APTT acquired by Araedis Investment for a consideration of S$53,175 at an average price of S$0.11 per unit.

 

Dai has gradually increased his total interest in APTT from 18.27 per cent in September 2022. He is also the chairman of Da Da Digital Convergence and the founder of Dafeng TV Ltd, the first publicly traded cable TV provider in Taiwan, which operates in domestic markets including New Taipei City and Kaohsiung City.

Between Dec 29 and Dec 30, the non-executive director of the trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust : S7OU +0.89% (APTT), Dai Yung Huei, increased his deemed interest from 19.13 per cent to 19.18 per cent.

 

This saw 808,100 units of APTT acquired by Araedis Investment for a consideration of S$89,699 at an average price of S$0.111 per unit.

 

Dai has gradually increased his total interest in APTT from 18.27 per cent in September 2022. He is also the chairman of Da Da Digital Convergence and the founder of Dafeng TV, the first publicly traded cable TV provider in Taiwan, which operates in domestic markets including New Taipei City and Kaohsiung City.

 

On Dec 30, the trustee-manager of APTT announced that its lead arranger had received commitment letters from sufficient lenders for the refinancing of its offshore facilities.

 

The facility agreement is expected to be signed in January 2023 with financial close expected to be in July 2023, at the maturity of the existing offshore facilities.

The trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust (APTT) says its lead arranger has received commitment letters from sufficient lenders for the refinancing of APTT&rsquo s offshore facilities.

 

The facility agreement is expected to be signed in January 2023 with the financial close expected to be in July 2023, upon the maturity of the existing offshore facilities.

 

The existing offshore facilities comprise a $125 million term loan facility and a $80 million revolving loan facility. Of the $125 million term loan facility, $78.4 million is currently outstanding, while $58.5 million from the $80 million revolving loan facility is currently outstanding.

 

After including the impact of scheduled repayments until the financial close, the size of the refinanced facilities will be reduced to a $46.6 million term loan facility and a S$75 million revolving loan facility on financial close.

 

&ldquo The substantial reduction in the size of the offshore facilities reflects the results of APTT&rsquo s debt management programme,&rdquo says APTT&rsquo s trustee-manager. &ldquo A key focus has been to make accelerated debt repayments, using cash generated from operations, to lower gearing and save on interest costs. This is especially important in today&rsquo s rising interest rate environment.&rdquo

 

The refinanced facilities will be on the same major terms. They will start immediately upon the maturity of the existing offshore facilities for 30 months.

 

The refinanced facilities will bear a floating interest rate plus an interest margin. The floating interest rate will be revised from the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) to the compounded Singapore Overnight Rate Average (SORA), plus a pre-agreed adjustment spread, to account for historical differences between SIBOR and SORA.

 

According to the trustee-manager, the interest margin will range from 4.1% to 4.9% per annum (p.a.) based on the group&rsquo s leverage ratio. This is compared to 4.1% to 5.5% for the existing offshore facilities.

 

Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. is the lead arranger and facility agent for the refinancing of the offshore facilities.

 

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&ldquo We are pleased to have received the necessary commitments to refinance our offshore facilities on the same major terms. This reflects lenders&rsquo confidence in APTT&rsquo s business and the management. We have been recording consistently healthy net cash flows for years, while our broadband business has been growing steadily,&rdquo says Brian McKinley, CEO of the trustee-manager.

 

With this refinancing, the principal repayment schedule and financial covenants for the offshore facilities will be reset. The trustee-manager will also not have to revisit borrowing facilities till 2025 with this.

 

&ldquo Although our offshore facilities represent only 10% of the group&rsquo s total outstanding debt, higher Singapore interest rates mean that we will incur higher interest costs going forward since we do not hedge our offshore facilities. Our overall exposure to rising interest rates, however, is contained since over 90% of our onshore facilities are hedged against the risk of rising interest rates through to June 30, 2025. Given that our onshore facilities comprise 90% of total debts, the impact of rising interest rates is not expected to substantially affect our business operations,&rdquo McKinley adds.

Between Dec 7 and 13, the non-executive director of the trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust : S7OU +0.9%(APTT), Dai Yung Huei, increased his deemed interest from 18.84 per cent to 18.98 per cent. This saw 2,599,300 units of APTT acquired by Araedis Investment for a consideration of S$294,053 at an average price of 11.3 Singapore cents per unit. This followed the acquisition of saw 1,705,000 units at 11.1 Singapore cents per unit between Dec 1 and 6 and 2,825,500 units at 10.8 Singapore cents per unit between Nov 23 and 28.

Between Dec 1 and 6, the non-executive director of the trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust : S7OU -0.88%(APTT), Dai Yung Huei, increased his deemed interest from 18.75 per cent to 18.84 per cent. This saw 1,705,000 units of APTT acquired by Araedis Investment for a consideration of S$188,683 at an average price of 11.1 cents per unit.

 

It followed the acquisition of 2,825,500 units at 10.8 cents per unit between Nov 23 and 28.

 

APTT is the first listed business trust in Asia focused on pay-TV and broadband businesses. Its investment mandate is to acquire controlling interests in and to own, operate and maintain mature, cash generative pay-TV and broadband businesses in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore.   APTT&rsquo s sole investment, Taiwan Broadband Communications Group (TBC) is ranked Taiwan&rsquo s third largest cable TV operator. Its premium digital cable TV and broadband subscribers have been steadily increasing over the past four years, with a total subscriber base now in the vicinity of 1,286,000.

 

In the Q3 2022 results presentation, the trustee-manager of APTT noted that the increase in the take-up rate of higher broadband speed plans since Q1 2020 had contributed to an average revenue per user (ARPU) improvement. The trustee-manager added that a lot of TBC subscribers were still in speed plans of below 300 Mbps, presenting an opportunity for TBC to move them up to higher speed plans. In the results briefing, the trustee manager shared that the take-up of higher speed plans and ARPUs had increased alongside Covid because there are now more applications to use them, for instance for home-based learning and work-from-home arrangements.