Branson’s rocket-launch firm Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy, to seek buyer

WASHINGTON – British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday after the satellite launch company failed to secure the long-term funding needed to help it recover from a

January rocket failure.

The California-based company lodged the filing to seek a sale of its assets after announcing the layoff of roughly 85 per cent of its 750 employees last week.

“At this stage, we believe that the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward to identify and finalise an efficient and value-maximising sale,” Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart said in a statement.

The company listed assets of about US$243 million (S$322.4 million) and its total debt at US$153.5 million as at Sept 30 in the filing.

Virgin Orbit went public in 2021 through a blank-cheque deal, raising US$255 million less than expected. Spun off from Mr Branson’s space tourism firm Virgin Galactic in 2017, Virgin Orbit air-launches rockets from beneath a modified Boeing 747 plane to send satellites into orbit.

The company’s sixth mission in January with its centrepiece LauncherOne rocket, the first rocket launch out of Britain, failed to reach orbit and sent its payload of American and British intelligence satellites plunging into the ocean.

Virgin Orbit, roughly 75 per cent-owned by the Virgin Group, scrambled to find new funding after the January rocket failure, halting operations and furloughing nearly all its employees on March 15 to conserve cash.

Reuters reported last month that Texas-based venture capital investor Matthew Brown had been in talks to invest US$200 million in the company. Those talks collapsed, sources told Reuters last week.

Virgin Orbit had a market value of US$65 million based on Monday’s closing price, down from more than US$3 billion two years ago. REUTERS