Virgin Orbit Scrambles to Avoid Bankruptcy  

NM – Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart and other senior leadership held daily talks with interested parties through the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal issues. 

During an all-hands meeting last week, Hart told employees that the company hoped to give an update on the situation as soon as Wednesday. Meanwhile, top talent is already hitting the job market: Many of Virgin Orbit’s approximately 750 employees are looking elsewhere for openings. That talent ranges from executives to senior and lead engineers to program managers who are actively searching for and finding new jobs, according to a CNBC analysis. 

While a door remains open to avoiding bankruptcy, people close to the situation describe a sense of panic as the company struggles to get a deal done. One buyer balked at a proposed sale price of $200 million; one person told CNBC — a price just below the company’s market value as of Friday’s close. At the same time, Virgin Orbit is bracing for a potential bankruptcy filing as soon as this week, one person said. CNBC has learned that Virgin Orbit hired a pair of firms — Alvarez & Marsal and Ducera Partners — to draw up restructuring plans in the event of insolvency. Sky News first reported the firms had been hired. A Virgin Orbit spokesperson declined to comment. 

Shares of Virgin Orbit have continued to fall since its pause in operations, with its stock slipping to close at $0.52 a share on Monday. The company developed a system for sending satellites into space that uses a modified 747 jet, which drops a rocket from under the aircraft’s wing mid-flight. Unfortunately, its last mission suffered a midflight failure, and its rocket failed to reach orbit. 

Since the fourth quarter, Virgin Orbit has raised $60 million in debt from the investment arm of Branson’s Virgin Group — giving it priority over Virgin Orbit’s assets. Around the same time, Virgin Orbit hired Goldman Sachs and Bank of America to explore other financial opportunities, ranging from a minority-stake investment to a complete sale. George Mattson, who sits on Virgin Orbit’s board of directors, has been heavily involved in the process of selling the company, people told CNBC. Mattson spent two decades as a banker at Goldman Sachs before co-founding the SPAC called NextGen, which took Virgin Orbit public at a $3.7 billion valuation.