Shares in Filtronic PLC flew on Wednesday as it unveiled a new agreement with Space Exploration Technologies Corp, and said sales in the current, and upcoming, financial years would top market expectations.
Shares in Filtronic skyrocketed 59% to 52.32 pence in London on Wednesday.
Filtronic, the Sedgefield, England-based designer and manufacturer of products and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure, space, and critical communications markets, said it had closed several ‘significant’ contracts in the first half of the current financial year.
As such, it expects financial 2024 revenue will now be ‘marginally’ ahead of expectations, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation will be ‘significantly’ ahead of expectations.
Filtronic said these recent contract wins give better visibility over the medium term due to the growing order book and increased confidence in the low earth orbit space market.
As a result, it expects financial 2025 to be ‘significantly’ ahead of current market expectations for both revenue and Ebitda.
In addition, Filtronic said it has entered into a strategic partnership and commercial agreement with SpaceX, which designs, manufactures, launches and operates rockets and spacecraft. It was co-founded by Tesla Inc owner Elon Musk.
The partnership includes the ongoing supply of E-band solid state power amplifiers in addition to the development and supply of similar products at other frequency bands within SpaceX’s Starlink platform.
The contract had an initial value of $19.7 million, around £15.8 million, to supply E-band SSPA modules, scheduled for delivery in financial 2025.
Further order flow is expected to continue thereafter to support the ongoing deployment of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
As part of the deal, Filtronic has issued around 21.7 million warrants to SpaceX across two tranches, to enable SpaceX to subscribe for up to a maximum of 10% of the company’s existing share capital.
The warrants are expected to vest, on a variable basis, with full vesting of the warrants once around $60 million of orders have been placed by SpaceX.
Chief Executive Richard Gibbs called it a ‘milestone development’ in its SpaceX partnership underlining ‘our core value proposition of high-quality engineering and operational excellence.’
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