Boeing will become an investor in Richard Branson’s satellite launch company Virgin Orbit when it goes public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in a deal that values it at more than $3bn.
Virgin Orbit, a spin-off from Branson’s Virgin Galactic tourism company, will merge with the blank cheque entity NextGen Acquisition II co-founded by a former Goldman Sachs banker, resulting in a listing on New York’s Nasdaq exchange.
The deal will bring up to $483m in capital to Virgin Orbit, including $100m private investment in public equity, or Pipe, financing led by US aerospace giant Boeing and space business investor, AE Industrial Partners. Virgin Orbit intends to use the proceeds to expand its services and accelerate launches, with six expected next year.
Virgin Orbit is the latest company to tap into growing investor appetite for rapidly expanding space-based opportunities, following the deals struck this year by earth observation companies Planet Labs and Spire Global. Both are merging with Spacs to go public with multibillion-dollar valuations.
Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 as Elon Musk’s SpaceX began to open up space to private enterprise by forcing down the costs of launches with reusable rockets. Morgan Stanley predicted the space sector would expand from $350bn a year in 2016 to more than $1tn by 2040.
Unlike SpaceX, Virgin has chosen to focus on horizontal launch services, using a modified 747 aircraft as a mobile launcher and a reusable first stage. After flying to the upper atmosphere on the 747, Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket is sent into space, carrying several smaller satellites of about 300 kgs each.
The group has already launched satellites to space for Nasa and won US military contracts. Virgin Orbit is also one of the companies chosen by the British government to help drive its ambition to launch satellites from UK spaceports from next year.
The transaction valued Virgin Orbit at an implied pro forma enterprise value of about $3.2bn. It is expected to close around the end of the year.
After the deal is completed, Branson’s Virgin Goup will hold about 68 per cent of Virgin Orbit. Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company is an existing investor in Virgin Orbit and will have about 17 per cent, while the Pipe and other private investors will hold about 15 per cent of the group. Boeing’s share was not disclosed.
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2021-08-23 14:49:57Z
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