🚀 Virgin Orbit's $17M Bid

🚀 Virgin Orbit's $17M Bid

May 19, 2023

The Space Scoop

Week Ended 05.19.2023

Happy Friday! Q1 space earnings continued along with news out of Virgin Orbit regarding their bankruptcy sale proceedings. In the private markets, Varda is rumored to be raising a new round and SpiderOak received an investment from various industry partners. Lets dive in.

Market Max-Q

Top Stories

1) Q1 space earnings continued this week after the barrage of reporting's last week. This week we had the 4 remaining SPACs along with ViaSat report. Highlights are below:

  • $LLAP

    • • Cash & Equivalents: $57M • Revenue: $28M, +115% YoY • Net Loss: $(55)M vs. $(72)M • Adj. EBITDA: $(23)M vs. $(15)M • Backlog: $2.5B • Shares: -17.7%

  • $SIDU

    • • Cash: $3M + $11M from Offering • Revenue: $2M, +26% YoY • Net Loss: $(4)M vs. $(2)M • OpEx: $4M vs. $3M • Shares: -4.1%

  • $ASTS

    • • Cash & Equivalents: $186M • Revenue: $0 vs. $2.3M YoY • OpEx: $45M vs. $43M • BW3 Capitalized Costs: $93M • Net Loss: $(16)M vs. $(11)M • Shares: -0.8%

  • $ASTR

    • • Cash & Equivalents: $63M • Revenue: $0 vs. $4M YoY • Net Loss: $(45)M vs. $(86)M • Adj. EBITDA: $(42)M vs. $(48)M • Shares: -9.5%

  • $VSAT

    • • Cash & Equivalents: $1.4B • Revenue: $2.6B, +6% YoY • Net Income: $1.1B vs. $(16)M • Adj. EBITDA: $583M, -5% YoY • Shares: +6.8%

 2) Virgin Orbit ($VORBQ) received a $17M stalking horse bid under Section 363 of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code from Stratolaunch.

  • On early Wednesday morning, VO announced via a bankruptcy court document, that Stratolaunch placed a floor bid of $17M for Cosmic Girl and other aircraft related assets. Stratolaunch is owned by PE firm Cerberus Capital Management.

  • A stalking horse bid is in bankruptcy as the floor price bid in an auction. It is not considered binding and other interested bidders must bid above this amount to attain the same asset or entire Company's assets.

  • This follows the news of 30 indications of interest the Company has received so far. The deadline to submit asset bids was today at Noon EST. Lets see what kind of news we get come next week.

In Other News

Varda Rumored to Be Raising $25M Round 

The in-space manufacturing startup is in the process of raising $25M pre-Series C "friends and family" round of new capital that would bring its post-money valuation to ~$500M, according to documents seen by TC. The round is being raised as a SPV managed by Side Door Ventures.

SpiderOak Receives Investment From Industry Partners 

Accenture ($ACN), Raytheon ($RTX) and Stellar Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in the space systems cyber security startup, which will accelerate deployment of zero-trust, end-to-end data security solutions for commercial and government customers operating in space.

Chart of the Week

Commercial Benefits of ISS (Source)

Links

• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) Set To Launch Second NASA TROPICS Launch in Late May• Spire ($SPIR) To Provide TrueOcean With Global Maritime Weather Forecast• DoD Awards Astra ($ASTR) New Launch Contract Add-On• Northrop Grumman ($NOC) Increases Quarterly Dividend 8 Percent• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) Unity 25 Flight Is a Go for Launch• Arqit ($ARQQ) Seeking Buyer for Quantum Key Distribution Satellite and Team• Sidus ($SIDU) Signs Agreement with Leaf Space for Additional Ground Station Coverage• Momentus ($MNTS) Deploys Qosmosys Satellite and Starts Comprehensive On-Orbit Support of Caltech Hosted Payload• Terran Orbital ($LLAP) Breaks Ground on New Satellite Manufacturing Facility

Opinion

• Astra ($ASTR) and Momentus ($MNTS) Face Cash Crunch• $ARKX: A Space Exploration ETF That Struggles To Lift Off• Intuitive Machines ($LUNR): Trading This Volatile Space Exploration Stock• The Dramatic Influence of Generative AI on the Space Industry• Review: When the Heavens Went on Sale

Earnings Calendar

• $PL: June 8 - After Market Close

*Company confirmed dates only.