Astra goes private
March 11, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Spacecraft launch company Astra, which went public in July 2021, is being taken back into private ownership. The company has admitted that the only alternative was to declare bankruptcy.
Chris Kemp, CEO, and Adam London, CTO, the joint founders of the business, announced on March 7th that the company would be taken private with existing shareholders being paid 50c per share. This sum is considerably less than the $1.50 offered in November 2023 to take the business back into private hands.
Astra, in a statement, said that a special committee comprising independent and otherwise disinterested directors had concluded that the decision was the best in view of the company’s financial situation.
Kemp and London say the costs of going back to private ownership would cost $40-$45 million and would include $20 million in cash to finance operations. Once the exercise was completed then Astra would be owned by a “number of long-term investors”. The move would complete in Q2.