🚀 Boeing Sues Virgin Galactic

🚀 Boeing Sues Virgin Galactic

March 29, 2024

The Space Scoop

Week Ended 03.29.2024

Happy Friday! The U.S. stock market is closed today due to Good Friday so we are in your inboxes earlier than usual. Lets dive in.

Market Max-Q

Top Stories

1) Q4 / FY'2023 earnings continued on this week with four companies (three SPACs) reporting. As these round of earnings are finishing out, we are already hearing from the Primes and Iridium which will start us off for Q1 2024 shortly. Terran Orbital also pushed back their earnings call seven days to this upcoming week without specifying a reason. Highlights include:

  • $SIDU

    • Cash & Equivalents: $1.2M

    • Revenue: $6M, -18% YoY

    • Net Loss: $(14)M vs. $(13)M

    • Adj. EBITDA: $(11)M vs. $(10)M

    • Shares: -4.6%

  • $TSAT

    • Cash & Equivalents: $1.7B

    • Revenue: $704M, -7% YoY

    • Net Income: $583M vs $(82)M

    • Adj. EBITDA: $534M, -6% YoY

    • Shares: -8.5%

  • $PL

    • Cash & Equivalents: $299M

    • Revenue: $221M, +15% YoY

    • Net Loss: $(141)M vs. $(162)M

    • Adj. EBITDA: $(55)M vs. $(57)M

  • $SATX

    • Cash & Equivalents: $14M

    • Revenue: $11M, +1% YoY

    • R&D: $29M, +73% YoY

    • Oper Loss: $(42)M vs. $(22)M

2) Boeing ($BA) sued Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) over trade secrets and missed payments.

  • Late last week, Boeing sued Virgin in U.S. court accusing the space tourism company of stealing trade secrets and failing to pay ~$25M for previously completed work.

  • Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences asked a federal judge in Virginia to force Virgin to destroy proprietary information it allegedly acquired through its work with Aurora to build a new mothership, one which would would replace the VMS Eve vehicle.

  • The lawsuit, per Boeing, notes that Virgin was "unfairly keeping intellectual property, including test data and some math equations" and also claimed Virgin could use the information "to advance design of a new Mothership on its own or with a different supplier."

  • News of the lawsuit did not scare either shareholders, as both Boeing and Virgin shares closed the week up +2.2% and +7.3%.

In Other News

ispace Raises ÂĄ8.1B in Stock Sale 

The Tokyo-based lunar lander company completed a sale of 10.25M shares raising a USD equivalent of $53.5M. Shares were sold to non-domestic institutional investors. The capital will help fund the development of upcoming lunar missions.

Ingersoll Rand To Acquire ILC Dover for $2.3B 

On Monday, Ingersoll Rand announced a deal to acquire the spacesuit and inflatable module provider ILC Dover from PE firm New Mountain Capital for $2.325B in cash. The purchase price has potential to increase by $75M based on 2024 financial results and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

Intuitive Machines Files $300M Shelf Offering 

(SEC)

On Wednesday, $LUNR filed a $300M Class A common stock shelf offering allowing it "from time to time" offer and sell the shares at the company's discretion. With a market cap of $760M, this is large future dilution awaiting investors. Shares fell -9.1% the following day.

Chart of the Week

Q1 2024 Performance: The first quarter of 2024 is now in the books. Intuitive Machines ($LUNR), as you may have guessed, led the way with shares up +145%. SatixFy ($SATX), Redwire ($RDW) and Spire ($SPIR) followed returning +71%, +54% and +54%. On the downside, Astra ($ASTR) and Momentus ($MNTS) fell -70% and -75% respectively.

Links

• Terran Orbital ($LLAP) Reschedules Q4 / FY'2023 Earnings Call• Boeing ($BA) Announces Board of Directors and Management Changes• Momentus ($MNTS) Cancels Special Meeting of Stockholders• Spire ($SPIR) Closes $30M Registered Direct Offering• Momentus ($MNTS) Chief Financial Officer to Transition• Spire ($SPIR) Announces Space Services Deal to Scale Constellation for HANCOM InSpace• AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) ASIC Chip Enters Tape-Out Phase in Collaboration with TSMC ($TSM)• Planet ($PL) Announces $20M Agreement with Carbon Mapper

Opinion

• The Big Questions About Starshield, SpaceX’s Classified Earth Observation Project• Spire ($SPIR): A Strong Buy Once The Financing Closes• Making Light Work of Space Junk Removal• Space Force Chief: More Insights Are Needed on Space Domain

Earnings Calendar

• $ASTS: Apr 1 - After Market Close• $LLAP: Apr 2 - Before Market Open (Delayed)

*Company confirmed dates only.