WASHINGTON — Shares in Voyager Technologies soared in their public debut June 11 as the company plans to use the proceeds to support work in defense and space.
Voyager shares closed $56.48 on the New York Stock Exchange on the day of its initial public offering, an increase of 82.2% over the IPO price. Shares traded as high as $73.95 over the course of the day.
The company raised $383 million in the IPO, selling 12.35 million shares at $31 each. The company had a market cap of more than $3 billion at the close of the day.
Voyager said it would use the funding in part for various strategic projects. The company, which rebranded from Voyager Space earlier this year, has focused increasing on defense opportunities.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunities in both segments,” or defense and space, Matthew Kuta, president of Voyager, said in a call with reporters June 11. In defense, he highlighted potential roles in the Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
He added, though, that Golden Dome was not the reason why Voyager decided to go public. “Voyager has been on this public company readiness path for a few years now,” he said, noting that the company filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to start the IPO process before Golden Dome was formally announced.
Voyager remains best known for leading development of Starlab, a commercial space station. Voyager owns two-thirds of Starlab Space, the joint venture with Airbus Defence and Space, Mitsubishi and MDA Space that has a NASA award to support initial design work on the station. It will later compete for funding in the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations program to build Starlab for launch before the end of the decade.
The IPO is a way to show NASA “that Voyager has an incredibly strong and healthy balance sheet,” Kuta said. “Obviously, having additional resources for something like this is beneficial in that endeavor.”
However, the proceeds of the IPO would cover only a small part of the cost of Starlab, which Voyager estimated in its prospectus to be $2.8 billion to $3.3 billion. Kuta did not directly address questions about whether Voyager or the Starlab Space joint venture would continue the project if it did not win the next NASA competition.
Voyager also said it would use proceeds from the IPO for potential mergers and acquisitions, or M&A. The company itself was built through a series of acquisitions of companies.
“I would anticipate us continuing to use M&A as a growth factor,” Kuta said, along with organic growth. As a public company, he noted, it is easier for Voyager to use stock to finance some deals. “When you’re private company, it’s a bit more difficult to use stock as part of the purchase price proceeds, when it’s illiquid and perhaps difficult to price, versus when you have an actively traded stock.”
Kuta argued the company was ready to pursue defense and space opportunities as a public company. “I think right now, you know, we’re the right industry, right company, really at the at the right market and geopolitical time,” he said.
