M&A Potential in Changing Market Conditions – Where Do We Go Post-SPAC?

Alexis Sáinz is the global co-leader of the Hogan Lovells Space and Satellite practice and a member of the Infrastructure, Energy, Resources & Projects group. She regularly represents export credit and multilateral development agencies, satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, financial institutions, project sponsors, private equity firms, hedge funds, and other industry participants on structured, project and vendor financings, in negotiating commercial and corporate transactions, and with commercially strategic regulatory matters. She also provides industry advice in connection with debt and equity offerings, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, and financial restructurings.

Alexis works with investors and lenders to understand the underlying issues impacting space projects and companies, at the intersection of commercial, regulatory and financing aspects of a transaction. She works with project parties to focus on key deal points and to identify appropriate industry-based risk mitigants and efficient allocation of risk in order to build consensus and drive closure. She works with companies to build a project and financing strategy from the ground up, anticipating financing issues early in the development of a new project or the growth of a company.

Alexis co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Committee on Space Law. She co-authored the chapter on “Commercial Satellite Programs” in the Routledge Handbook of Space Law. Prior to beginning her legal career in 2007, Alexis spent over 10 years working in internet-based industries, including e-commerce and media. She previously served as a consultant for the World Bank, National Geographic, and domestic non-profit organizations in connection with internet-based technology, and she was an early member of KPMG Peat Marwick’s financial service’s e-commerce consulting practice, where she focused on emerging technologies.

Bulent Altan is a Founding Partner of Alpine Space Ventures, Europe’s leading venture capital firm investing in early stage companies focusing on foundational solutions that fuel the space industry’s commercialization.

Bulent is a NewSpace veteran having spent his two decades in this industry in the most cutting-edge and disruptive space companies.

Bulent began his career as one of the first employees at the then newly-established SpaceX in 2004, having graduated from Stanford University and following completion of his studies at the Technical University of Munich.

At SpaceX, he was essential in growing the company’s avionics department from seven people to over 200 and was as Vice-President responsible for the avionics of the Falcon rockets as well as the Dragon capsule. In his latest role for the company Bulent was Vice-President of Satellite Mission Assurance for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite mega-constellation.

Bulent left SpaceX from 2014 to 2016 to co-found the start-up ecosystem and aerospace industry in Europe, during which period he held positions as a partner and mentor at the Munich industrial start-up accelerator TechFounders and take on the role of Head of Digital Transformation and Innovation at Airbus Defence and Space.

Following his second stint at SpaceX until the end of 2017, Bulent also helped disrupt the space communications landscape leading Mynaric, a free-space optical communications company, as their CEO.

Mr. Letarte is a Principal at AE Industrial and is primarily focused on originating, executing and monitoring portfolio investments. Mr. Letarte has helped lead AE Industrial’s recent space investments in York Space Systems, Redwire, Firefly Aerospace, and Sierra Space. Additional active investments at AE Industrial include Belcan, BigBear.ai and Kellstrom Aerospace. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of AE Industrial portfolio companies York Space Systems and Belcan. Prior to joining AE Industrial in 2018, Mr. Letarte was an investment banker at Moelis & Company, where he focused on M&A, restructuring and strategic corporate advisory across a broad spectrum of industries including aerospace and defense. Prior to joining Moelis, Mr. Letarte was in J.P. Morgan’s Leveraged Finance Group, where he provided debt capital solutions and acquisition financing.

Akshay Patel has 15 years of experience in the aerospace and satellite industry across finance, business development and engineering.  He is currently a managing director at PJT Partners where he leads to firms advisory practice in Space Technology. Prior to joining PJT,  Akshay was Vice President of Corporate Development at OneWeb. Akshay also spent 5 years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley where Akshay focused on advising companies across the satellite industry value chain including the advising on sale of Skybox Imaging to Google, the merger of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, and the IPO of Intelsat. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Akshay was an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin where he designed and built telecommunication and remote sensing satellites.

Mr. Pellicore is a Partner at Bain & Company where he is a leader in the Aerospace & Defense and Private Equity practices.

In between stints at Bain, he spent four years as an executive at Ursa Major Technologies, a Space start-up building additively manufactured liquid and solid rocket engines for orbital space flight, hypersonics, and tactical missile systems. He helped grow Ursa Major from 20 to 200 team members and navigate multiple rounds of private fundraising.

He returned to Bain to help open the Denver, Colorado office and spends his time helping A&D companies on strategy, program improvement, innovation and R&D effectiveness, and partnership structures with new entrants. He also leads commercial and operational due diligence efforts on A&D companies for venture capital, growth equity, and private equity capital allocators.

Mr. Schmidt is a Managing Director at KippsDeSanto & Co. and co-heads the Aerospace / Defense Group.

Prior to joining KippsDeSanto & Co., Mr. Schmidt was a Senior Vice President in Houlihan Lokey’s Washington, DC office and a member of its Aerospace·Defense·Government Services industry investment banking group, where he focused on sellside and buyside M&A advisory engagements, sourcing growth capital, and conducting strategic alternatives assessments. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey’s ADG practice, Mr. Schmidt was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army, serving in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States in various combat arms assignments. He also served in the Pentagon on the staff of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, working on classified intelligence assessments and transformation efforts, and he served on the U.S. Army Staff, working on equipment modernization and weapons testing.

Mr. Schmidt earned a B.S. in engineering (aeronautical) from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an M.S. in operations research from the Naval Post Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is registered with FINRA as a General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7, 63).