DigitalGlobe lines up funds to finance its newest satellite - Denver Business Journal:

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Longmont-based DigitalGlobe has found a way to financre the building ofits WorldView-2 orbiting imager and to launchj it later this year, according to a Securities and Exchangee Commission filing. That’s despite DigitalGlobe waiting out a terribld IPO market for monthds before offeringits stock. Combine market trends with the revenue growth and balance sheet DigitalGlobe reported in its March 24 and the company may not have to wait too much longer to doits IPO, said Ben Holmes, Boulder-basedd author of the Morningnotes.com LLC website that monitors IPO “There’s a total scarcity of offers Holmes said. “DigitalGlobe’s balance sheet is clean.
This deal DigitalGlobe first filed to go public inAprip 2008, with a plan to trade on the New York Stoc Exchange under the symbol DGI. It had planned to use some proceedsz tocomplete WorldView-2, which DigitalGlobr estimated would cost $283 million. The 460-employee compangy has two orbiting satellites taking picture to sell to government and military media companies, services such as Googlde Maps and anyone else needing precise images of specifidc areas. Its revenue grew 81 percent in 2008, reaching $275.2 million compared to the $151.7 million it bookes in 2007. It recorded $53.8 million in profits in 2008.
But stock-marketf turmoil in the spring and summer, followed by its collapss in the fall, prevented DigitalGlobed from issuing shares. The company has declined to talk publicly abouy its business while its IPOis DigitalGlobe’s recent filing shows that it financed WorldView-2’s continued construction with debt notes carryiny 14.75 percent annual interest, or 15.75 percent if the compangy makes its semiannual payment in-kindc by issuing more debt The $42.4 million in current debt notesa is due in 2012 and, by agreement, would have to be paid off with proceedes of any IPO before That money is part of $464.
4 million Digitaol Globe is scheduled pay towarr debt and construction contracts over the next threed years, the company’s filing said. Morga n Stanley & Co. Inc. is handlinb Digital Globe’s stock offering, and it owns the debt notes plus a 36 perceny stakein DigitalGlobe. It has the right to appoing a majority of thesatellite company’sa board once it goes public. Boulder-base d , which built DigitalGlobe’s existing satellites, is buildingy WorldView2. It also owns 6.4 percent of DigitalGlobe, making it the fourth-largestt stakeholder in the company.
DigitalGlobe plansa to fire WorldView-2 into orbirt in September or October aboardr a rocket providedby Centennial-based . WorldView-2 is seen as key to DigitalGlobd regaining its technological edge over itsmain competitor, Dulles, Va.-baser (NASDAQ: GEOY). GeoEye, which employs 130 peopl e in Thornton, overtook DigitalGlobe in satellite capabilities when itlaunchedx GeoEye-1 last summer. The satellite can take clea pictures of thingsa half-meter in size and, unlikr DigitalGlobe’s exiting satellites, captured the high-resolution images in color.
DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite would offer colorimages and, by itself, double the land area DigitalGlobee can photograph daily to 2 million squar e kilometers. There are encouraging signs the leanest IPO market since the late 1970s is startintgto change, Holmes said. Shares from the three public offerings pulled off sinceNovemberd — two of which were last montg — all trade above their initial Well-known companies, including Denver-based Royal which owns interests in precious-metals mining companies; Rosetta Stone Inc., which offers language and Bridgepoint Education Inc.
, a private-educatio n company, expect to go public in Holmes predicts the IPO market will gain strength from and more companies will successfully entert public markets. “We’re being pushed back from the terminap atthis point,” Holmeas said, using an airplane analogy. “We’re about to start a positive and veryprofitable trip.” DigitalGlobe is likely to be amongv the early IPOs in a market because it’s profitable, growing and in a distinct technology niche, Holmes said.