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Life sometimes imitates emojis. Social media stock tipsters are fond of littering posts with rocket symbols. Rocket Lab, which is floating at a $4.1bn enterprise value, makes the real thing. It was one of two space-related businesses to join the market via special purpose acquisition companies (Spac) on Monday, as the surge in these listings continued.
Just two months into the new year and Wall Street has raised a staggering $58bn through 188 blank cheque vehicles, according to Refinitiv. With hot money appearing to outweigh the supply of merger candidates, sponsors are howling to the moon for deals.
Rocket Lab launches smaller satellites into space. Its celestial twin was Spire Global, a satellite data group that is combining with a Spac at a $1.6bn equity valuation.
Like many recent Spac companies, Rocket Lab and Spire are justifying their valuations with lofty sales and earnings growth projections. Rocket Lab, which generated $35m in revenues last year, said it expected to pull in more than $1.1bn in 2026 and become cash flow positive in 2024. Spire, with just $28m in sales in 2020, is forecasting $900m in revenue by 2025 and positive cash flow in three years’ time.
Tesla founder Elon Musk and his SpaceX rocket company have reignited investor interest in US space companies. Annual revenues from space-related business — at present worth $350bn — could almost triple in size by 2040, according to Morgan Stanley.
SpaceX was reportedly valued at $74bn by its latest private funding. Shares in Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space tourism company, have almost doubled since last September to give it a $9bn valuation, even as the group reported a $273m loss in 2020.
Space companies are a moonshot borne aloft by the rocket fuel of cheap money. That momentum trade has more to recommend than some others, such as fledgling electric vehicle companies. Both Rocket Lab and Spire have proven technologies to accomplish highly demanding tasks. This really is rocket science. But like space exploration itself, these investments are only for the brave.
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