10 Jul 20. Janet Cameron former Bellamys director invests $3m in Kleos Space. Kleos Space S.A. (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data provider, advises:
- Placement of 10,000,000 CDIs at $0.30 per CDI for a total $3m
- An Integrator and Channel Partner Agreement with USA Group Red Group Technologies Inc. (RGT) for their advanced analytics product suite
- Kleos Space targeting $1.4bn Global Maritime market
- Imminent launch of satellites leading to commencement of revenue generation
- Pipeline of over 130 clients ranging between AU$128k-AU$971k per licence per annum
- Next cluster of four satellites in progress
Placement
Kleos has received commitments from entities controlled by Janet Cameron to raise $3m via the issue of 10,000,000 new ordinary fully paid CDIs.
Andy Bowyer Kleos CEO said: “I thank Janet for her continued support, the placement provides further security for Kleos Space as we move into an exciting period for our shareholders.”
Channel Partner Agreement
Kleos has entered into an Integrator and Channel Partner Agreement with Red Group Technologies Inc (RGT) to be an Integrator of and Channel Partner for, products from their offices in Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Pete Round; Kleos Chairman & Executive Director for Group Business Development said: “I am delighted that we at Kleos will be able to contribute data that is both unique and an exemplar of the quality required. This is the beginning of a long relationship with RGT”.
As an authorised Integrator, RGT will provided with a guide price of €300,000 per annum. The agreement has no fixed term and no payment is guaranteed until specifications, end use case, numbers of users and fixed price are agreed.
Ron Demeter CEO of RGT said: “We are excited to work with Kleos Space. This is a great opportunity that we believe provides substantial value to governments as they protect their borders and Exclusive Economic Zones from illicit trafficking and other illegal activities.”
RGT will also act as a Channel Partner (a value adding reseller) of the Kleos Space data and will also be provided with a discount based on revenue generated from its customers over a rolling 12-month period.
RGT is a US-owned and operated specialist in C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) solutions operating predominately in the Middle East and North Africa. The RGT suite of advanced analytics empowers leaders and organisations to glean greater insights from current and historical information to “See First, Understand First, and Act First”. Providing the tools to dominate the intelligence environment by creating custom workflows and data visualisations that improve operational performance.
Recent Company Presentation
https://mcusercontent.com/eec9446ad6b1a95ef3e1ca63e/files/f4ff9d40-e3ed-4f27-bcdb-dd109f13adbc/20200609_ASX_Release_Kleos_Presentation_June_2020.pdf
Kleos’ Scouting Mission
Kleos’ Scouting Mission satellites that are in Chennai, India awaiting launch on Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV C49, will detect and geolocate maritime radio frequency transmissions to provide global activity-based intelligence, enhancing the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of governments and commercial entities when Automatic Identification System (AIS) is defeated, imagery unclear or targets out of patrol range. Kleos’ satellites will be in a 37-degree inclination orbit, covering crucial shipping regions for defence and security customers including the Strait of Hormuz, South China Sea, Australian coast, Southern US coast as well as the East and West African coast.
08 Jul 20. Sagewind Capital Invests in QuantiTech. Sagewind Capital LLC (“Sagewind”), a New York-based private equity firm, announced today an investment in QuantiTech LLC (“QuantiTech” or “The Company”), a leading provider of highly technical engineering services to the Army, Air Force, NASA and various other key defense agencies. QuantiTech’s capabilities supporting hypersonics, counter unmanned aircraft systems and human spaceflight include systems engineering, cybersecurity, test & evaluation, and program management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We are very excited to partner with the QuantiTech team,” said Steven Lefkowitz, Managing Partner of Sagewind. “QuantiTech’s founder, Sheila Brown, and Chairman, Randy Cash, have built a reputation for excellence and established the Company as an essential partner for our nation’s defense community. QuantiTech has highly educated and talented personnel who are passionate about missions critical to our national security. We are very impressed with the business the QuantiTech team has built and look forward to supporting them as they execute on their growth strategies.”
The management team of QuantiTech will continue with the company and will retain a significant equity ownership.
Darryl Wortman, President and CEO of QuantiTech said, “Sagewind is an ideal partner for us that has a strong track record of supporting government services companies. They have backed many management teams to help grow their businesses through acquisitions and other growth initiatives, which is exactly what we need as we strive to better support our customers’ critical missions by providing a broader set of capabilities.”
Mr. Cash, the former CEO of QuantiTech and a former Vice President in various roles at SAIC, will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors. As part of the transaction, industry veterans Deborah Dunie, Dr. Paul G. Kaminski and General Paul Kern, US Army (Ret) will join the QuantiTech Board of Directors. Ms. Dunie brings over 30 years of senior level business experience in government services, most recently as the former CTO of CACI and a former Director of SAIC. Dr. Kaminski served as the Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology from 1994 to 1997, has chaired and served on several company and government advisory boards, and was twice Chairman of the Defense Science Board, of which he is still a member. General Kern retired after almost 38 years with the US Army as the Commanding General of the Army Materiel Command and is currently a member of the Defense Science Board and a Senior Counselor at The Cohen Group.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as Sagewind’s legal counsel. Maynard Cooper & Gale served as legal counsel to QuantiTech. KippsDeSanto acted as the exclusive financial advisor to QuantiTech.
About QuantiTech LLC
QuantiTech is a leading provider of highly technical engineering and management support services for the federal government, based in Huntsville, AL. It serves mission critical programs, primarily to key defense agencies responsible for maintaining technological superiority and warfighter dominance. QuantiTech’s capabilities are focused on systems engineering, cybersecurity, test & evaluation and program management for key defense end-markets such as hypersonics, counter unmanned aircraft systems and human spaceflight for the Army, Air Force, NASA and various other defense agencies. (Source: PR Newswire)
08 Jul 20. Antenna Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) completes acquisition of AQYR Technologies, Inc. broadening the business to include SATCOM ground terminals. Antenna Research Associates, Inc (ARA) has finalized its acquisition of SATCOM Technologies from AQYR Technologies, Inc. The newly acquired company will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of ARA and continue to operate as AQYR Technologies, an ARA company. AQYR Technologies, based in Nashua, NH, will continue to operate from its site collaborating with ARA across various sites in US and Europe.
Logen Thiran, President and CEO of ARA, said the transaction will help further build up its SATCOM products offering in support of government, military, and commercial customers worldwide. ARA is excited to launch our new logo for the company while building on its 57 years of strong history as a renowned antenna company. We are on our way to become a Communications Solutions company for our customers worldwide.
“With the addition of AQYR Technologies, our antenna systems portfolio in the SATCOM market is now expanded to include SATCOM terminals, where AQYR brings a unique capability with a single button push and auto acquisition of signal in an optimal ground terminal package for the customers,” Thiran added.
ARA, founded in 1963, supplies antenna solutions to the Electronic Warfare, Law Enforcement, Military Communications, Satellite Communications and Radar Markets.
AQYR Technologies, founded in 2013, provides tactical, auto acquire SATCOM terminals for the commercial and military markets. (Source: PR Newswire)
07 Jul 20. BAE Cyber Security Venture Secures Top-tier Investment for Launch As New Business. Strong growth predicted for SOC.OS, whose vision is to re-imagine security operations for stretched IT security teams. Following the development and internal incubation of an early stage cyber security venture, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence has announced the spin-out of a new company, SOC.OS . The move sees the innovative SOC.OS gain £2m in funding from two top-tier cyber and deep tech venture capital partners, Hoxton Ventures and Speedinvest, who alongside the founding team will help fuel the next growth stage of the business.
SOC.OS is designed to help small, internal security teams manage the ever-growing number of alerts produced by threat protection and detection tools. It works by continuously analysing, triaging, and prioritising alerts, escalating the most important incidents to the IT security team for further review. A number of early adopting customers including the UK Atomic Energy Authority and The University of Sussex are already using the technology.
SOC.OS was born within the Futures team of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence – an internal innovation and venture incubation hub – and it also benefited from BAE Systems’ close collaboration with CyLon, a leading cyber security accelerator, participating as part of CyLon’s cohort 9 programme in 2019. Spinning out SOC.OS with the continued support of BAE Systems and the new VC partners means the founding team can now develop and scale the SOC.OS service at speed, accelerating the value it delivers to its growing customer base.
The new company launched officially in June 2020, with Dave Mareels as its CEO. Mareels, who joined BAE Systems on an internal engineering leadership programme in 2017, anticipates strong growth despite the global crisis.
He said: “Unfortunately, global pandemics don’t slow down the antagonists, the battle of defending against and responding to malicious activity across the digital estate remains constant. To add to the challenge, a new working-from-home-norm has been introduced which increases IT service delivery and business continuity pressures.”
“Spinning out SOC.OS during these unprecedented times has only strengthened our resolve and dedication to our mission, which is to augment the small and already over-stretched IT teams with their day-to-day security operations. It’s an exciting time for our team and customer base and I look forward to the opportunity and next phase of our growth.”
Andy Broom, Strategy Director at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence commented, “As SOC.OS developed, the team was able to demonstrate its benefits to a wide number of enterprises who value cyber resilience. We are proud of what the team has achieved to-date under BAE Systems’ stewardship. Spinning out SOC.OS will allow it to continue to grow independently in markets which are beyond our strategic focus.”
Hussein Kanji, Founding Partner at Hoxton Ventures added: “As early investors in Darktrace, we know a thing or two about identifying great UK cyber security talent. We are excited to be partnering with SOC.OS and working with the UK’s leading defence player and one of our favourite co-investors, Speedinvest, to spin out this unique company.”
Marcel van der Heijden, Lead Deep Tech Partner, Speedinvest concluded: “Small and medium-sized businesses often face the same cyber threats that strike large companies. Unfortunately, they simply can’t afford the teams required to effectively prevent or manage such attacks. SOC.OS helps these businesses, which are the backbone of our economies, better protect themselves. Backed by technology originally developed at BAE Systems, we believe SOC.OS is delivering a critical solution to a global problem, and we’re excited to help them get it into the hands of businesses around the world.” (Source: ASD Network)
09 Jul 20. Rolls-Royce posts cash outflow of 3bn pounds in first half. Aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce (RR.L) said it had burned through 3bn pounds ($3.8bn) in its first half as the hours flown by its engines halved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The British company, which makes engines for the Boeing 787 and Airbus 350, said it expected to see an improvement in the second half, resulting in free cash outflow for the full year of about 4bn pounds.
It said restructuring, which will see at least 9,000 jobs cut, would support a recovery that would produce a free cash inflow of at least 750m pounds in 2022.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created a historic shock in civil aviation which will take several years to recover,” CEO Warren East said.
The outflow reflected a 1.1bn pound fall in receipts from engine flying hours and deliveries and a 1.1bn pound one-off impact from the end of invoice factoring, a practice used to align the timing of cash receipts with deliveries.
The company said it had increased its liquidity to 8.1bn pounds, including a new undrawn 2bn pound five-year term-loan facility.
($1 = 0.7911 pounds) (Source: Reuters)
03 Jul 20. Rolls-Royce reviewing balance sheet options after COVID-19 hit. British aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce (RR.L) said on Friday it was reviewing a range of options to strengthen its balance sheet and position itself for recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We confirm we are in the early stages of reviewing a range of potential options,” the company said in a statement in response to a Bloomberg report.
“However, no decisions have been made.”
The Bloomberg report said Rolls was examining options including raising equity and disposals, with the sale of its ITP Aero unit one disposal being studied. Shares in Rolls-Royce, which have lost 57% of their value since the beginning of the year, extended losses to trade down 9.4% at 264 pence at 15.35 GMT.
The company said its financial position and liquidity remained strong.
Roll-Royce, which makes engines for planes such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus 350, has been hit hard by the sharp downturn in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It said in May it planned to cut at least 9,000 jobs, or a sixth of its workforce, as it shrinks to fit the smaller market it expects to emerge from the crisis.
Most of the jobs, out of a global staff of 52,000, will go from its civil aerospace business, which generates just over half of its 15bn pounds ($18bn) of annual revenues.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut Rolls’ credit rating to junk in May, saying actions to contain the pandemic, including social-distancing, travel restrictions, and stay-at-home orders, had sharply reduced demand for air travel. (Source: Reuters)