UK company Sky and Space Global has received signed binding commitments for raising $12 million in a two-tranche share placement to investors as part of its $15 million fundraising effort, the company announced this week.
The placement is priced at $0.03 per share and is conditioned on the lodgement of the prospectus. The funds will be put towards the launch costs of the first batch of the company’s Pearls constellation nano-satellites network, which will help connect billions of people living in the equatorial belt
The launch with Virgin Orbit is due to take place by mid-2019 and is the initial stage of the company’s plan to operate a network of 200 nano-satellites to provide around the clock affordable voice, data, instant messaging, M2M and IoT communications to the equatorial belt.
SAS services also plans to bring a huge range of life saving services like search and rescue, disaster management, emergency response, security alarms and recreational tracking to the equatorial region.
And this is in addition to a whole range of traditional services including cellular telephone applications, offshore communications, smart farming, interactive TV, airplane, vessel and animal tracking, water and electric metering, grid monitoring, and ATM.
The company also plans to conduct a fully underwritten priority offer (PO) to raise a further $3 million, with an option to accept a further $1 million on the same terms in the event the offer is oversubscribed.
“We have undertaken this round of financing at a crucial time for the company, as we prepare to launch our first batch of Pearls nano-satellites into space,” said Meir Moalem, Sky and Space Global managing director and CEO. “The support we have received is indicative of the confidence the market has in our ability to deliver on milestones and achieve the objectives we have set out for the company,” he added.
Placement proceeds will be used mainly for capex payments to suppliers, completion of first Pearl launch activities, for operational working capital and for general administration costs. This will enable Sky and Space Global’s Pearl nano-satellites network to progress to the next stage and lead to the generating of revenue by late 2019 as a result of the $15 million in new capital raised along with additional financing initiatives currently in progress. These include raising debt from US banks and the management of key supplier contracts that are currently in place.
