Pointers at Glance
- An agreement was announced by Maxar, a space imagery & infrastructure company, to go private.
- Advent International has acquired Maxar for an all-cash deal of around $6.4 billion.
Advent International is a private equity firm that is committed to providing $3.1 billion of equity financing in Maxar. Also, $1 billion is provided by the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. The total deal, including debt, is around $6.4 billion.
Benefits of The Acquisition
The acquisition will allow Maxar to speed up the things such as Legion seven and eight satellites and various other technologies and invest sooner in the business. The agreement says that Advent International has provided $53 per Maxar share, which is a premium of approximately 130%.
Maxar has shared high-resolution satellite images of the Ukraine war and was also involved with the Artemis program of NASA.
Supporting Defense
The main portfolio of Advent International is to support many satellite and defense platforms. It also serves the government of the United States and its alliances. It has invested around $28 billion in defense, cybersecurity, and security in the last three years.
The significant aspect of the agreement of Maxar with Advent includes a 60-day “go-shop” period and is anticipated to close in mid-2023. Austin Moeller, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, said that a defense contractor might be interested in putting in another bid in the go-shop period.
Maxar was founded in the 1950s and lost nearly 20% of its market value in 2022. The losses incurred are over 50% compared to other satellite imagery companies like Satellogic Inc (SATL.O) and Spire Global Inc (SPIR.N).
Hence, JP Morgan Securities LLC and Wachtell, Rosen & Katz, Lipton advised Maxar, while Goldman Sachs & Co LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co LLC, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advised Advent.
