HawkEye 360, a provider of satellite-based signals intelligence for U.S. government agencies, has gone public in a deal priced at the top of the marketed range / Photo: X / HawkEye 360
Pre-IPO trading in shares of HawkEye 360, a company that provides government customers with intelligence and analytics data based on radio-frequency signals collected from space, has started on Freedom’s client trading platform. Later on Thursday, the company’s shares will debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker HAWK.
Details
Analytics company HawkEye 360 raised $416 million in its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The company priced its shares at $26 per share, at the top end of the previously announced range. Based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings, the company’s market valuation can be estimated at $2.4 billion, Bloomberg calculates.
The underwriters of HawkEye 360’s IPO were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, Jefferies, BofA Securities, Baird, Raymond James, and William Blair. They received a 30-day option to purchase up to 2.4 million additional shares at the IPO price, minus the underwriting discount.
The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to repay borrowings – as of December 31, its total debt stood at $48.6 million – as well as to fund working capital, according to the IPO prospectus filed with the SEC.
About the company
HawkEye 360 was founded in 2015 by a team of U.S. military veterans, defense engineers, and national-security technology specialists, the company said in the IPO prospectus.
Historically, signals intelligence based on radio-frequency data had been the domain of governments and traditional defense contractors, but HawkEye identified what it described as a “critical gap” in unclassified RF intelligence capabilities available to the U.S. government and allied nations, according to the prospectus. The company said it capitalized on advances in satellite launches, satellite miniaturization, and cloud computing to build an end-to-end unclassified analytics platform. HawkEye developed a proprietary data-collection system using small satellites, which it says provides “unprecedented commercial access” to RF signal data from orbit that had previously been unavailable. In parallel, the company created a signal-processing platform with proprietary algorithms that powers its analytics and intelligence capabilities.
HawkEye now designs and operates a constellation of small satellites that collect radio-frequency data and then process it using the company’s own software. Its technologies make it possible to track emission sources such as radars, electronic-warfare systems, and communications networks.
In December, the company acquired signal-processing technology developer Innovative Signal Analysis. HawkEye said the deal expanded its offering and should strengthen its relationship with the U.S. government.
Demand for advanced intelligence capabilities has become especially acute amid geopolitical instability, as well as the proliferation of drones, widespread signal jamming, spoofing, and GPS interference, the filing said. All of this, the company added, creates a global market worth about $24 billion.
What analysts say
The IPO market has regained momentum: in early April, Elon Musk's SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO, encouraging a growing number of space-tech companies to tap the public markets, Reuters reports.
“Clearly the IPO market is open to the aerospace and defense industry, and HawkEye 360 is looking to take advantage of that,” Renaissance Capital senior strategist Matt Kennedy told Reuters. “I can imagine space-tech CFOs telling themselves: If it's a good enough time for SpaceX, it's good enough for us.”
HawkEye 360’s listing coincides with a burst of IPO activity in the defense-tech sector as global conflicts drive up military spending, Bloomberg added.
Freedom Broker sets a target price of $34.50 per share for HawkEye 360 shares, analyst Alem Bektemirov notes. That implies upside of more than 24% versus the IPO price. At the same time, Bektemirov flags that the company’s valuation could decline if growth slows. Freedom’s current forecast assumes the company’s revenue will increase from $118 million in 2025 to nearly $2 billion in 2035, while the share of the U.S. market in revenue over that period will rise from 61% to 78%.
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Freedom clients will be able to trade HawkEye 360 shares before the start of the main U.S. session. Premarket trading will open 2-3 hours early, at 15:30-16:30 Astana time. Investors can participate by selecting the symbol HAWK on the Freedom platform.
