🚀 Aerojet Seeks Acquisition

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The Space Scoop

Week Ended 12.02.2022

Happy Friday! AST SpaceMobile underwent a securities offering, Bank of America is bearish on Virgin Galactic, Aerojet Rocketdyne is courting suitors, and Anduril raised the second largest fundraising round in 2022 behind SpaceX. Lets dive in.

📈 Market Max-Q

S&P 500: 4,071.71 +1.1%NASDAQ: 11,461.51 +2.1%UFO: 20.34 -0.5%ROKT: 40.31 +2.0%ARKX: 13.50 +2.4%SSIT: 48.80 -2.4%PL: 5.79 +8.6%MAXR: 25.72 +8.1%ASTS: 5.82 -12.1%LLAP: 2.14 -20.8%1W return as of 4:00pm EDT.

🚀 Top Stories

1) AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) announced and completed an offering for $75M Class A common stock.

• The company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes.

• B. Riley Securities is acting as sole bookrunner and underwriter for the offering. They will be granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional ~$11M worth of shares.

• Shares fell -9.0% on the news and closed the week -12.0% lower.

 2) Bank of America Securities' remained bearish on Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) into 2023.

• Analyst Ronald Epstein kept the 'Underweight' rating, but cut the price target from $5 to $4 per share.

• While the firm believes Virgin will take measures to ensure liquidity in the near and long term, BofA see risks to their business model as macroeconomic headwinds continue to mount into the new year.

• "We believe these could have a much larger impact on Virgin Galactic relative to the rest of our coverage given the discretionary nature of its business model."

 3) Reuters reported General Electric ($GE) and L3Harris ($LHX) are among suitors interested in acquiring Aerojet Rocketdyne ($AJRD).

• The company has been running a process to find a buyer for itself following the blocked $4.4B sale to Lockheed Martin ($LMT) per antitrust regulators.

• Also in the mix are Textron Inc ($TXT) and PE firm Veritas Capital. Aerojet does not see any of the named bidders subject to antitrust issues as "none are direct competitors or share much of the same supply chain."

• If the negotiations conclude successfully, a deal could be completed by end of the month.

🛰️ In Other News

SynMax Raises $6M Seed

(Payload)

The satellite data analytics startup focused on O&G and dark ship monitoring raised the oversubscribed round raised entirely by existing customers, which was led by Bill Perkins, cofounder of SkyFi. The firm is focused exclusively on "generating customer-ready analytics" with last-mile delivery of already existing raw satellite data.

Anduril Raises $1.48B Series E

(Axios)

The defense technology startup raised the capital at an ~$8.5B valuation and is the second largest funding round this year behind SpaceX's $1.7B. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, 8VC, Lux Capital and others.

📊 Chart of the Week

On Wednesday, November came to a close. SatixFy ($SATX) was the industry leader returning +40% while Momentus ($MNTS) continued lower by -25%. 

Looking for more Space? Moon Monday is a weekly newsletter dedicated to covering global lunar exploration, science, commercial and policy developments. Moon Monday is written by Jatan Mehta, a globally published independent space exploration writer and Contributing Editor for The Planetary Society. We highly recommend you check it out!

🔗 Links

• Mynaric ($MYNA) Delivers HAWK Terminals To Commercial U.S. Energy Customer• Momentus ($MNTS) Signs Contract with Australian Research Centre to Place Satellite in Orbit• Viasat's ($VSAT) ViaSat-3 Satellite Completes Final Integrated Satellite Test• Sidus ($SIDU) Receives NOAA Tier 1 License• SiriusXM ($SIRI) Commissions Maxar ($MAXR) to Build Two New Satellites• Momentus’ ($MNTS) Vigoride Spacecraft Integrated with SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Introduces Dedicated National Security Subsidiary• Astra ($ASTR) Elevates Senior Leaders to Management Team

🗣️ Opinion

• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE): A Waste of Space in Your Portfolio• BlackSky ($BKSY): Struggling To Outpace Its Spending Needs• Telesat ($TSAT): The Stock Price May Go Up Like Its Satellites• Rocket Lab ($RKLB): Continue To Be Bullish As Q3 Was Strong• Here’s What Boeing ($BA) Must Do Before Its Stock Is a Buy• AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS): More Evidence That Downside Is Being Limited With Successful Executions

📅 Earnings Calendar

• $ARQQ: December 14 - Before Market Open• $PL: December 14 - After Market Close• $SATL: December 15 - Business Update

*Company confirmed dates only.