AE Industrial Partners , a specialist in space investing and a private equity firm specialising in aerospace, defence & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets, has completed its majority stake investment in York Space Systems, an independent provider of small satellites, satellite components and turnkey mission operations.
AE Industrial Partners (AEI), a specialist in space investing and a private equity firm specialising in aerospace, defence & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets, has completed its majority stake investment in York Space Systems (York), an independent provider of small satellites, satellite components and turnkey mission operations.
Dirk Wallinger, who founded York in 2012, will remain in his current role as CEO & Board Director, and Charles “Chuck” Beames will continue to serve on the Board of Directors. They will also maintain significant ownership positions in York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Denver, CO, York manufactures and architects low Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), and cislunar spacecraft solutions for the proliferated satellite market. Its products are purposefully designed to balance scalability, manufacturability, and efficiency to meet the schedule-driven, high-volume demand for customers’ small satellite constellations. York’s spacecraft solutions are designed for all mission types, including communications, EO/IR, radiofrequency, hyperspectral, weather, remote proximity ops, and more.
York currently serves a variety of leading government and commercial customers. The SDA recently awarded York an additional contract with a total potential value of approximately $200 million. Known as the T1DES program, York will build and operate 12 prototype satellites that will test satellite communications from LEO to augment the Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation. As previously announced, York is also providing spacecraft solutions as part of both Tranche 0 and Tranche 1 of the SDA’s Transport Layer and has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense’s new proliferated LEO constellation.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor and Ernst & Young as financial advisor to AEI. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as legal advisor and Jefferies LLC as exclusive financial advisor to York.