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Virgin Orbit, the sister company of Galactic Virgo (SPCE), would be the last space company to go public through a merger with a “blank check company”.
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Richard Branson’s satellite launch company has hired Credit Suisse Group AG and LionTree LLC to find a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to go public, sources told The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
The sources also said Branson is seeking a valuation of $ 2.5 billion to $ 3 billion for Virgin Orbit. He told CNBC in January that Virgin Orbit was considering public listing through a SPAC.
A public listing would follow a successful test in January, when a Virgin Orbit rocket launched 10 satellites into space after a key test flight stumbled in May. It was the first time that a horizontal launch system reached space.
Instead of a vertical launch from the surface of the Earth, Virgin Orbit uses Cosmic Girl, a modified version Boeing (BA) 747, to bring the LauncherOne rocket to an altitude of 35,000 feet, where it is released and fired to continue into space.
Virgin Galactic shares climbed 2.9% to close at 34.55 on the stock exchange today. Boeing, which is investing in Virgin Galactic, jumped 6.8% on Friday.
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Virgin Orbit joins other space stocks
Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic went their separate ways in 2017 so Virgin Orbit could focus on low-cost small satellite launch services for the U.S. military and other customers.
Next, Virgin Galactic became the first publicly traded commercial space tourism company in October 2019, following a reverse merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings.
This was followed by a wave of blank check activity in the space industry. Earlier this month, Vector acquisition (VACQ) has announced that it will go public with Rocket Lab in a deal that values the space company at $ 4.1 billion.
Spire Global, a small satellite provider, also announced plans to go public this month through a merger with NavSight (NSH).
Astra Space goes public via Holicit (HOL), and Momentus goes public via Acquisition of stable routes (SRAC).
PSPCs provide a way for private companies to go public without an IPO. Instead of selling shares, the private company is merging with a shell company that is already public. PSPCs have become popular recently after being rejected for years by the financial community.
Follow Gillian Rich on Twitter for space news and more.
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