Why Advent bought the satellite imagery company Maxar
Private equity firm Advent buys Maxar, a satellite imagery company famous for its shots of Ukrainian battlefields, for $6.4 billion
Maxar, a major provider of satellite imagery to US national security agencies, goes private.
Advent International will acquire Maxar in mid-2023 in a transaction that, including debt, is worth $6.4 billion, one of the largest acquisitions on the market in recent months. Shares of Maxar are up about 122% in trading following the announcement. The company has lost about 20% in market value this year, compared with more than 50% losses from other satellite imaging companies, such as Satellogic Inc and Spire Global Inc, Reuters reports.
Investment firm Advent has invested $28 billion in defense, security and cybersecurity over the past three years, and its portfolio includes companies that work closely with the US Department of Defense. The acquisition of Maxar will help the company launch more satellites.
Maxar became famous for her shots of Ukrainian battlefields. While other companies' satellite images have made their way into Ukraine's press coverage, none are as ubiquitous as Maxar. According to the company, Maxar provides 90% of the "critical geospatial intelligence used by the US government for national security."
All the details.
THE OPERATION
Advent International has reached an agreement to purchase Maxar Technologies, valued at approximately $4 billion. Advent will pay $53 per share of Maxar, which Advent notes is “129% higher than Maxar's closing share price of $23.10 on Dec. 15, 2022, the last full trading day prior to this announcement. a premium of approximately 135% over the volume-weighted average daily price prior to this announcement and a premium of approximately 34% over Maxar's 52-week high."
Including the debt, the transaction is worth $6.4 billion, making it one of the largest buyouts in recent months.
WHAT MAXAR DOES
Headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, Maxar owns and operates 90 orbiting satellites that collect detailed images from space. Its technology is used for both defense and intelligence operations, as well as Google Maps.
Maxar's history dates back to the birth of the American commercial satellite imagery industry in the 1990s, made possible in part by President Clinton's decision to open up the sale of images to foreign entities. Five years later, a company called Space Imaging launched Ikonos. After several acquisitions and a merger, Maxar Technologies was born in Westminster, Colorado in 2017.
For nearly a decade, Maxar was the sole provider of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to the US Department of Defense's National Reconnaissance Office, which paid Maxar $300 million a year for access to its satellites and its gigantic archive of images.
The company is also involved in NASA's Artemis return to the moon program, Reuters reports.
SOON OWNED BY ADVENT
Advent said it will prioritize the satellite imagery company's work with US defense and intelligence agencies.
The new owner is a Boston-based investment firm founded in 1984 that has completed over 400 investments in 41 states and manages $89 billion in assets. Over the past three years, Advent has invested $28 billion in defense, security and cybersecurity; Portfolio companies include Cobham Advanced Electronics Solutions and Ultra Electronics Group, both of which work closely with the US Department of Defense.
“Commercial imaging has become increasingly important over the past decade as advances in commercial technology have resulted in cameras that are on par with, if not superior to, the largest US government systems,” comments Breaking Defense .
Finally, a key aspect of Maxar 's deal with Advent is a 60-day "go-shop period," which ends Feb. 14, for the company to consider alternative propositions.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/perche-advent-ha-comprato-la-societa-di-immagini-satellitari-maxar/ on Tue, 20 Dec 2022 06:31:23 +0000.