Excellent. You are raising SEK 64.5 million to speed up the work in chosen areas, as I understand it. Please tell us more. What is going on in your chosen areas? Tell us more about the rights issue.
What we have seen on the market recently when it comes to space is an increased demand for information, for service insights from space assets. There has been quite a lot of interest from institutional users, commercial users. We have seen, particularly in the last half year, an increased demand for the kind of data, kind of intelligence that we are generating, and the kind of services that we are providing to users here on the ground. As always, very much our work is about making life better here on Earth. We are doing that by not only supplying parts and components, but particularly by growing our data and services business. This has been something that a strategy that we have been pursuing for quite some time.
As I say, over the last few months, we saw an increased interest for what we are doing, not only from governments and commercial organizations, but also from the investor community. We have had quite a lot of interest in our shares, in what the company is achieving. That has opened the opportunity and has created enough interest in the investing community for several of those investors to approach us with interest in a share issue. We have always said that we would do something like this to grow our business, to actually expand our business. Today, we announced that we are raising SEK 64.5 million. This will be done through direct share issues to a group of investors, some of which are new investors. The largest of them is Nowo Global Fund. They are a new investor.
They will now own about 4.1% of the company. It's great to have them on board. They are an institutional investor that invests for the long term. It is good to see them leading this direct issue. We are also seeing other investors that are already in our cap table ready to return to increase their share. That is quite encouraging to see. We will issue a number of new shares. They were issued at a price of SEK 110 per share, which represents a discount of around 15% from the close on 27th June. We believe that this is a good discount, a fair discount, considering the history of our share price over the last few weeks. It also shows that there is quite a lot of interest in what we are doing.
The proceeds of this direct issue will be used largely to progress our data and services business, to grow, to expand, to accelerate what we are doing, particularly with the next two satellites of the VIREON constellation. In 2023, we had raised some capital to start satellite one and two of that constellation of four. Now, with this direct issue, we have the funding to do number three and number four. In that way, we complete the constellation for providing that service. We already have customers for that constellation. We already have users out there that are waiting for our data and for our services built around that. This will allow us to accelerate that, to accelerate our delivery of data, but also to expand the user base and the customer base for that constellation.
Of course, at the same time, we are growing our maritime services, particularly our maritime intelligence capability. We have announced recently that we are starting a program called INFLECION, what will be the first use of our VDES constellation, the constellation for tracking and communications in the maritime domain. We will be actually also investing part of these proceeds in growing our footprint in the maritime intelligence business, introducing new services, increasing the amount of available data that we have for our customers. This is, again, another area that is growing quite fast in the world. With all the challenges we are having right now in terms of geopolitics, there is quite a lot of interest in the maritime domain, in understanding who is using the sea for what. We are seeing a lot of demand for data and information.
With extra investment, we can grow our business in that area in a way that allows us to answer the needs and the demands from the market. Of course, linked to that is a growth in the defense interest, defense and security interest in space. We are also going to use some of these funds to grow that part of our business. We have been having many conversations and many discussions with the defense sector around the world right now. People are very interested in what we can offer. This will allow us to actually develop customized offers, customized solutions for what those customers are looking for. All in all, a very important day and a very important outcome for AAC Clyde Space.
Thank you for that, Luis. I have a couple of questions. I can see that the viewers are throwing in questions as well. We will deal with them. We have received a couple of questions before. Let's start with the mechanics of the transaction here and the reasoning of the book building process. How did you work out the 15% discount? To some, it may be seen high, i.e., generous. What's the thinking there?
We actually worked with our advisors. We worked also looking at what the market was expecting. As I say, very much based on the history of our share price over the last few weeks, that seemed like a fair discount for the market. It is a balance. It is a balance. Of course, we always want to offer the least discount possible. We also have to be conscious that the market has some expectations. We think it is a fair value.
It's a balanced price at this volume. Could you explain the thinking behind this subscription by a limited number of investors?
What we do constantly is, and many of our investors will probably have seen me do those, I present the company. In some cases, investors have come to us directly. They want to see. I do that in public forums. In other occasions, we've got advisors or banks or investment institutions that approach us. They say, well, we have a network of investors that are interested in knowing more about your company. Some of those will approach us and they will say, we would like to invest in the company. This is our offer. This is what we would be willing to do. We will, of course, do due diligence and do some vetting of those. We will look for alignment between those investors and what the company is trying to achieve.
As we say, we have been looking for reference institutional investors that actually strengthen our cap table. We work out that. Usually, we are approached. People come to us and tell us, we would like to invest in your company. Of course, we will engage with them.
Is there a lockup period?
No, not in this case. No. We did not implement one of those.
We have some comments about the strong institutional investors here. Forgive my ignorance here, but did Nowo already hold shares in the company?
No, they didn't. No. So they are a new shareholder to the company.
OK. Going on on the mechanics here, there have previously been concerns about transaction costs. Why a share issue and not raising debt instead?
I think ultimately, actually, debt would have been more expensive, considering the level of interest rate that we would be facing and the time that we would hold the capital we would need. Debt would probably have been more expensive, actually, when we looked into that. We looked into that possibility. It also comes with costs. It is also not cost neutral. We actually looked into that, and it would be more expensive than a direct issue of shares.
I have a follow-up question for the lockup here. That is, what's the reasoning behind a no lockup?
In general, lockup, just if you actually impose a lockup period, you are just effectively, or the new investors are just signaling how long they actually want to keep their shares. In this case, we are working with investors that we expect to be actually a longer-term investor that are actually not interested in just buying now and selling quickly. In that sense, it did not seem to be particularly useful to have a lockup in that sense. It would not actually add much. It would just signal that in 180 days, people would start selling shares. That actually would be counterproductive.
I see. One thing that you know when you have a lockup is that when the lockup ends, there will be a selling pressure. It makes sense in that respect. I have a question here also connecting to speeding up the work. VIREON satellite, sorry, expanding maritime intelligence service and strengthening the offer to the European defense and security sector, as you mentioned. There is a lot of things going on. What triggered your decision? We have a viewer question here, which is, if I can just read it in here, we already have customers for the constellation on VIREON. Are there new customers coming in? Is there any particular thing you would like to point out as a trigger? A lot of questions here, but.
Yes. Actually, the answer is fairly straightforward. We have been building VIREON-1 and VIREON-2. We have always said that to actually answer the needs of all our customers, we need four satellites. We need more capacity. We need more timeliness and more timely data. As such, we have always been targeting having the four satellites. We had financed number one and number two. The first one will be launched later this year. The second one early next year. This is the time to actually start building number three and number four. The trigger is just timing. Now is the time that we need to actually commit to our suppliers. It is the time that we need to commit to things like launch. This is the time to do it. That is the main trigger in terms of doing it at this time of day.
The market is growing quite fast. It's quite interested in what we are offering. The opportunity is also there. Not doing it now just means we would delay things, and then we risk losing some of that market.
I have a question here, which is more of a statement. That would end in a question here. Some would argue that the company has issued new shares too easily and that a share issue should be a last resort or at least require truly compelling cases. You could argue that you already made compelling cases, particularly with satellite three and four here. If we go back to issue new shares too easily, what would be the argument against that?
I would say that there is nothing easy in issuing new shares. Direct issues are actually quite time-consuming. They require quite a lot of presentations. They require quite a lot of discussions and talks. Nothing is easy. We do not particularly want to do it. The fact is, we are a growing company. We need investment and capital to actually grow our fleet of satellites, our services, our data business. We have been doing quite a lot of use, for instance, of government grants. Over the last few years, since 2020, I think we have received about SEK 195 million in grants from government, for instance, to finance a lot of our development work and our growth. We have another similar quantity, SEK 195 million, currently ring-fenced for us from government organizations.
The reality is, even that usually requires us to show that we can also invest some money. Although we have been very good at making use of available cash from other sources, we still need to be able to actually show that we can participate in that development with our own funds. Like we discussed earlier, we either do share issues or we get loans. We raise capital through debt. Right now, the balance debt would be more expensive for us. When we have looked at that possibility, issuing shares, to me, is the best of the two options. It is by no means something that we just decide to do on a whim. It takes quite a lot of planning. It takes quite a lot of thinking about it. It is very much we cannot finance in other ways.
Because if we could, we would do it in other ways.
You're using the, well, let's say the possibilities that are available in the market. I have a question that I received ahead. I will combine that with a viewer question here. If I understood your answer here correctly in one way, is that in order to get some business, you do need to show that you have some sort of critical mass when it comes to your cash balance. You have already carried out share issue related to the VIREON project. How were those funds used? As I can understand, you need, let's say, you need a war chest. A viewer question here is, in case of a positive message from Eumetsat in the next two days, is there a need for yet more cash? Or are you prepared?
That is referring to the Sterna constellation. Now, the Sterna constellation is a fully funded project that we are selling payloads and equipment for satellites. That is a fully funded project with a positive cash flow. We design it in such a way that it has a positive cash flow. There is no match funding. There is no public-private partnership. In that case, that is just straightforward. For Sterna, there will be no need of us raising any capital. All capital we raise now is for our own data and services business. That is when we own our own satellites. We build our own satellites for ourselves. Because of Sterna, we are suppliers of equipment. That is what we will be doing. That is a different type of business.
OK. So that won't cannibalize or infringe on the plans, as it were.
No.
I have an insider question here, which I also will combine with a question that we got mailed in. The management and the board do not participate in this transaction, as I understand it.
No. I can't even, we have been on an insider log as soon as there was any discussion about this. So we can't even participate.
No, exactly. The question here is, insiders said that they will invest when time is right. So when is the time right? It's not when you are on the insider list, I take it.
Exactly.
How would you like to reply?
Exactly. So when we are insider list, we can't do that.
No.
We are limited on what we can do.
Speeding up the VIREON project here, what potential new revenues do you expect from these satellites?
We haven't announced those yet. Although I would urge many years ago, we have actually made some, we gave some guidance on what we would expect in 2030 for our Earth observation business. Things have changed a bit, not dramatically. We will be actually updating that guidance later this year. When we present next quarterly results, we will actually update that guidance because we believe that it is important for the markets to know. We are updating that. We want that number, of course. We have done a business case analysis. We haven't published that yet. We will be.
OK. We have some questions here regarding the potential revenue from new investments versus the dilution for current shareholders. Obviously, as you haven't published it, do you know when you will be able to publish any revenue estimates?
Yes. Our plan is to actually, when we present results at the end of quarter three, we would actually update everyone on what our forecasts are for our data business. It's a time. Coming the end of quarter three, we will update everyone on that.
I remember from the previous interview, you were quite confident when it came to the previous revenue estimates because you had a very good, let's say, visibility of future revenues. May I just ask you a little bit of a cheeky question here? Obviously, you can't comment on the share price. There are third-party research out there, which has an estimate far beyond today's share price, of course. What they do is that they have an estimate for full year this year of north of SEK 450 million. Given where you stand now, would you say that SEK 450 million is reachable within a margin or beyond the margin?
As I say, as you correctly say, we haven't published. We haven't published. We don't forecast, I would say. It's reachable. I can't say how reachable it is or if it's on the margin or not. What we have said is that we will have double-digit growth from last year. That's the only thing that we will confirm. I would say the analysts, we are generally comfortable with the analysis of the analysts. Of course, they don't have all the information, and so they might miss their numbers. In general, we are comfortable with what they are presenting.
So you're not dragging them, kicking, screaming, and lower the number. As I interpret here, you may not comment on that. I have a question.
I can't comment. I can't say I can't commit to that number.
No.
As I say, what we committed is for double-digit growth from last year.
Which is.
I'll let people make their calculation for where that places.
Could you just comment on trends in demands so far this year when it comes to, let's say, the sectors that you're now focusing on mentioning in the beginning?
What we have seen, particularly when it comes to data and services, is an increase of demand for information and for insights. People are not just looking for data, raw data coming from the spacecraft, from the satellites. They are increasingly looking for the information, the analytics that comes with it. We have been working through this year in developing our analytics products, our capability of delivering an information product. That is a bit more complex, but also higher value to our customers than just raw data. We have been working on that. We have been expanding our capabilities in that area, but also growing the amount of data that we can actually generate. That's quite an important thing. We need data. We need the raw material so that we can then generate the analytics.
What we are seeing is an increased demand when it comes to that. That comes from institutional work, so governments and governmental institutions, but also from the commercial sector, particularly, for instance, in the maritime domain. We are seeing quite a lot of interest in some of the new technologies that we are developing for tracking and communications from governments that see it as a way of making navigation and making the maritime sector safer. Also from commercial operators, there is a lot of interest, for instance, in tracking ships for understanding what cargo they are carrying. There has been quite an uptake in that area, in the demand for data and information. In hardware, we continue to do a strong business. We continue to have quite a lot of demand for the hardware that we are delivering, particularly in our product businesses.
The components, the power systems, computers we deliver to other manufacturers. We continue to see quite strong demand for that.
We have a question here about the potential orders of EPS-Sterna during the years. Can you give us any more flavors on the number of satellites that may be included?
Eumetsat had an original plan for 16. They have since stated that they are looking for 20 satellites for the constellation. Their decision is still open until the end of this week. We will see what the final number is. I believe it is a 20-satellite constellation that they are looking for.
I mean, given the fact that this is a growing area, and you have certainly underlined, let's say, the increase in demand. If one looks at the viewer question here, everyone seems to be on board on that. Increased demand, is there increased competition?
In some sectors, yes. In others, no. We do not necessarily welcome competition. To some extent, we like it. We think it is an important part of our business to have competitors. Competition also means that the sector is becoming more attractive. It is actually that there is more demand. We see some competition in areas like hardware. When we are delivering products and satellites, there is definitely a lot of competition. There is less competition on the data and services, partly because we choose our areas of operation in parts of the business with less competition. Also, in some cases, like on the maritime domain, we are actually one of the leading companies in delivering data. We already have our own constellation. We have customers. We have distribution networks. We are in a strong position.
It's difficult for new companies to enter that market because you need the satellites. You need all the contacts, all the contracts. We already have those. We are in a strong position in there. Yes, there is competition. There is more competition in certain areas. We are pretty comfortable with it.
It's a strong growing market. You've been around the block for so long that you have a brand recognition. People know you. The authorities know you. Now you have an institutional owner as well. What would be the next news flow that we should look for, apart from closing this issue?
We are waiting, for instance, you mentioned Sterna, EPS- Sterna. We are waiting for Eumetsat to make its decision later this week. They will decide if they go ahead or if they postpone that decision. That will be an important point for us to understand where Sterna, the constellation, is going. We have several news this summer relating to our maritime domain. There are several new things coming up. We have satellites that are going through commissioning, finishing their testing before they come online. We have important tasks. We have important milestones there. Later this year, the launch of the first VIREON spacecraft. That will be quite an important milestone for ourselves. There will be a mixture of things, both in our hardware business and in our data and services business coming up over the next few months.
The press releases from AAC Clyde Space will be many and worthwhile checking. I'll just end with one question here. Any plans to invest and expand the U.S. business and operations at the moment?
Yes. We have been in discussions about how to actually expand. There are opportunities that we are following. I will not comment. I will not describe them in detail. We have, of course, been having discussions with third parties and internally on how to grow the business in the U.S.
OK. Interesting. More news to come. That is the conclusion here.
Yes. Yes. Watch this space.
Watch this space. Luis, thank you. Very educational, interesting. We wish you the best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
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