Firefly captures $868M in IPO proceeds
Gettyimages.com / Brais Seara
By
Ross Wilkers
This is the second space-focused initial public offering in as many months with both exceeding original expectations on the proceed and valuation fronts.
Firefly Aerospace has fetched roughly $868 million in its upsized initial public offering after investor demand for stock in the launch and space system maker exceeded expectations.
In Firefly’s Thursday debut on the NASDAQ, the company sold approximately 19.3 million shares at a price of $45 each.
The company originally expected to price the stock at $35-to-$39 per share, then on Monday lifted the range to between $41 and $43. Firefly also originally planned to offer 16.2 million shares.
With those specs, Firefly achieved a valuation of roughly $8.5 billion to exceed its prior goal off $5.5 billion. Shares in Firefly closed at $60.35 on their first day of trading.
AE Industrial Partners, the private equity firm that acquired its majority ownership of Firefly in 2023, remains in control of Firefly through its 41.8% ownership of the stock post-IPO. Five out of nine members of Firefly’s board of directors work at AE Industrial.
Firefly’s strong start on the public markets follows that of Voyager Technologies, whose public offering in June also exceeded expectations on both the proceeds raised and valuation achieved.
In both instances, the newly-minted public companies are looking to capture slices of investor interest in defense and space programs. Firefly opened for business in 2017 and Voyager started in 2019.
Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as lead bookrunning managers for the Firefly offering. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities and Cantor are acting as joint bookrunners. Roth Capital Partners and Academy Securities are acting as co-managers.
Below are videos of Firefly’s executive team ringing the NASDAQ opening bell and a CNBC interview with chief executive Jason Kim, both from Thursday.