The U.S. rocket and space technology developer Firefly Aerospace Inc., owned by Ukrainian businessman Maksym Polyakov plans to raise $350 million to scale up production and work on a medium-class launch vehicle – Firefly Beta.
Firefly Aerospace CEO Tom Markusic spoke about these plans during the IPO Edge webinar, the company’s press service said on Thursday.
“In the next five years we want to take Firefly from a $1 billion with Alpha to being on the order of a $10 billion company with a set of different launch vehicles,” Markusic said.
The company said $125 million of the funding would go toward production enhancements, such as facilities and tooling needed to ramp up launch vehicle production. The other $225 million would support growth initiatives, in particular a medium-class vehicle capable of placing 10 tonnes into orbit, about ten times more than the capacity of Alpha.
“Our development phase was $200 million, and that was funded by Maksym Polyakov and Noosphere Venture Partners […] Now we are considering expanding the list of investors in order to raise an additional $350 million, without impeding our ability or fundamentally changing our culture as a nimble, fast-moving space development company,” Markusic said.
He also confirmed plans for Alpha’s inaugural launch soon.
As reported, Firefly Aerospace has already performed checkouts of the Alpha launch vehicle.
As reported, Firefly Aerospace Inc. signed a Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with equipment and avionics company Adaptive Launch Solutions (ALS), which includes four launches of the Alpha rocket starting in 2021.
Ukraine’s Space Electric Thruster Systems (SETS) will provide its SPS-25 propulsion system for the inaugural launch of the Alpha rocket made by a rocket and space technology developer Firefly Aerospace Inc.
Top 20 countries Ukraine has posted the highest surplus of trade in goods in Jan-Oct of 2020 (thsd USD).
SSC of Ukraine
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2020 provided the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) with state guarantees for UAH 23.5 billion.
According to the information on the state guarantees provided in January-December 2020, published on the website of the State Treasury Service, on April 28, 2020, Ukravtodor received a state guarantee for UAH 19.274 billion (with additional guarantee of interest income), on December 18 for UAH 1 billion and on December 22 for UAH 2.25 billion and UAH 1 billion (all three – with additional guarantee of all payment obligations).
According to the data on the total amount of state and state-guaranteed debt for 2020, Ukravtodor placed 12-month bonds for UAH 5.78 billion in April last year, for UAH 5.08 billion in June and for UAH 3.5 billion in November. In total, from the placement of this type of bonds, the state agency raised UAH 14.36 billion of funds.
In addition, in August, Ukravtodor placed three-year bonds worth UAH 2.87 billion, and in November five-year bonds for UAH 2 billion.
According to Ukravtodor, 12-month bonds were redeemed by Ukreximbank for UAH 5.782 billion at 10.5% for one year, for UAH 5.081 billion at 9.99% for two years and for UAH 2.872 billion at 9.99% for three years.
In December, the state agency raised UAH 4.25 billion from three state-owned banks: UAH 1 billion each from Ukrgasbank and Ukreximbank, as well as UAH 2.25 billion from Oschadbank.
The State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine ensures the implementation of the state policy in the field of road facilities and road management.
The net profit of Alfa-Bank (Kyiv) in 2020 amounted to UAH 1.21 billion, which is 1.6 times less than in 2019 (UAH 1.93 billion).
According to the bank, in the fourth quarter of last year, the bank received UAH 433.645 million of net profit, which is 1.4% less than in the same period in 2019 (some UAH 440 million).
Alfa-Bank’s assets over the past year increased by 35.6%, to UAH 97.5 billion, including the bank’s loan portfolio by 22%, to UAH 47.82 billion, due to loans provided to business entities, the volume of which increased by 51.4% to UAH 19.6 billion. At the same time, the volume of highly liquid assets increased by 39.5%, to UAH 7.2 billion, due to an increase in cash balances by 74.7%, to UAH 5.1 billion.
It is indicated that the balances on the account in the National Bank as of January 1, 2021 amounted to UAH 2.1 billion, while the liabilities to the National Bank reached the level of UAH 9.9 billion.
According to the statistics, the volume of balances placed on correspondent accounts in other banks increased 4.2 times, to UAH 8.3 billion.
The bank’s liabilities increased by 38.5% to UAH 87.8 billion, including the volume of legal entities’ funds by 34.8%, to UAH 30.4 billion, and funds of individuals by 19.4%, to UAH 41.5 billion.
The bank’s capital increased by 18.1%, to UAH 9.7 billion, and the regulatory capital as of January 1, 2021 amounted to UAH 8.8 billion.
As of October 1, 2020, Alfa-Bank ranked sixth in terms of total assets (UAH 101.64 billion) among 74 banks operating in the country.
Shareholder of Motor Sich PJSC, Chinese Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co. considers the sanctions imposed by Ukraine against Skyrizon and related persons for three years to be unreasonable and calls them the main goal of preventing investments in Motor Sich.
Skyrizon, as a shareholder of Motor Sich, will be unlawfully deprived of its legal rights, obligations and commitments, and the company will also be forced to interrupt the generally accepted business relationship with the Ukrainian Motor Sich company, which will entail huge irreversible losses, the company said in a statement on the website, created to attempt to hold a meeting of shareholders of PJSC on January 31, which turned out to be unsuccessful.
Skyrizon also believes that such actions by Ukraine coincide with the goal of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which on January 14 this year put Skyrizon on the Military End-User (MEU) List.
The state of Ukraine rejected the results of the previous negotiations and completely ruled out any possibility of reconciliation between the two sides, the company said.
Skyrizon said that, starting in July 2017, it began negotiations with the state of Ukraine in the hope of “settling misunderstandings and amicably resolving the investment dispute,” but on December 9, 2020, it began international investment arbitration against Ukraine and has already received an official response. “The parties are negotiating and plan to participate in the arbitration process,” the company said.
The Chinese company also said that on January 13, it succeeded in challenging the refusal of an investigator from the State Bureau of Investigation to recognize Skyrizon as an injured party in the Pechersky District Court on January 13 in the case initiated early November last year on its complaint against the SBU.
According to the company, such actions on the part of Ukraine may scare off other potential investors and worsen the situation in the aircraft industry.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 01/02/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
