Intuitive Machines announced that the company is going public through a reverse merger with a blank-check company or SPAC, Inflection Point Acquisition Corporation
The company will be listed on the Nasdaq under the name - Intuitive Machines, and the deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. For both Inflection Point and Intuitive Machines, JPMorgan
After accounting for debt, the new company is expected to have an enterprise value of $815 million. Inflection Point had raised $300 million in its IPO last year during the SPAC boom with an intention to take a private European tech or consumer business public. The window was closing as SPACs have a limited time to deploy their raised capital, or it's returned to investors.
Intuitive Machines was founded in 2013 and is based in Houston, Texas. It's impressive that in such a short time, has become one of NASA's most reliable contractors. Intuitive Machines' lunar payload delivery services were chosen by NASA for 3 lunar missions which will send an American spacecraft to the surface of the Moon.
For most of 2022, the IPO, M&A, and SPAC markets have been nearly frozen due to the Federal Reserve's hawkish turn. A big factor is that nearly all of the IPOs and SPACs are down by a staggering amount from their debuts, turning off investors from the asset class. During the height of the SPAC craze, it wasn't unusual to see more than a 10:1 ratio between SPACs and IPOs. Now, many SPACs are being unwound and even the SPAC-king Chamath Palihapitiya has dissolved 2 of his vehicles.
However, this deal is a reflection that investors continue to be interested in and see opportunities in space, as many investors believe this is going to be the sector where the next batch of trillion-dollar companies emerge. Another factor is that there simply aren't many pure-play, space companies in the sector.
