Sky and Space Global is rattling the tin as it accelerates its plan to beef up its presence in the space communications race as it looks to launch the first eight of its income earning, telecommunications “nanosatellites” by next year. The company is also planning to expand its commercial opportunities in the satellite sector as it continues to attract telecommunications customers.
The Perth-listed company is looking to raise $15.8 million through both a non-renounceable entitlement issue and a placement to sophisticated and professional investors to help underwrite the launch of its first suite of “6U” nanosatellites.
It is anticipated the monies will also be used to establish Sky and Space Global’s first revenues through the opening of its commercial services arm.
The company said it will now focus on a number of key areas post the capital raise including the manufacturing and launch of its satellites, the negotiation of launch contracts, ground terminal manufacturing, the negotiation of ground station contracts, the setting up an operation centre with satellite operators and network engineers and other complementary activities.
Sky and Space Global’s goal is to become a global telecommunications provider, courtesy of a fleet of miniature satellites that are very cost effective to get into space. It has developed a suite of highly sophisticated software systems that will deploy, maintain orbit control and handle the communications network in space for customers that are dotted around the globe.
The ASX listed company is seeking to become a major disruptive force in the telco market by offering cheaper and reliable communications to remote areas that were previously not well serviced by the major telecommunications companies.
The company successfully launched its first three trial nanosatellites into space during June 2017 and it is now preparing to send a constellation of up to 200 more nanosatellites towards the heavens by 2021.
Whilst announcing the latest fund-raising campaign, Sky and Space said growing demand for satellite internet of things and machine to machine connectivity by telecommunications providers around the world represented a significant and expanding market opportunity, with the sector expected to grow globally to US$1.4 billion by 2027.
The non-renounceable entitlement issue will be on a 1:1 basis, resulting in the issue of 2,175,014,261 new shares at $0.005 per share to raise $10,875,071. This entitlement issue is available to all eligible shareholders, with details provided in the prospectus.
Meanwhile, a placement on the same terms as the entitlement issue to sophisticated and professional investors should raise $5 million through the issue of 1,000,000,000 new shares at the same issue price of $0.005 per share.
Merchant Corporate Advisory is the lead manager for the placement and entitlement issue, which Sky and Space Global is hoping will be strongly supported by high net worth individuals and institutional investors that have been major supporters of many of the company’s previous capital raisings since its back door listed on the ASX in 2016.
Sky and Space Global Managing Director Meir Moalem said: “During 2019, we have continued to develop our hardware, technology, infrastructure and commercial channels and signed additional future potential customers in preparation for commercialisation. On behalf of Sky and Space Global, I’d like to express my thanks to shareholders for their ongoing support at this challenging and important time as we move closer to commercialisation of our services.”
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By Matt Birney
