MacDonald Dettwiler has a Good Week

BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) has two pieces of good news to be thankful for this weekend.

The MSS. Graphic c/o Canada Connects.

On Thursday, the Federal government renewed the existing MDA contract to support operations and maintenance of the International Space Station (ISS) Mobile Servicing System (MSS) until December 2015.

The Canadian developed MSS played a critical role in ISS construction and currently assists with the berthing of visiting vehicles such as the SpaceX Dragon and Japanese HTV spacecraft. It has also been a key component in recent tests of on-orbit satellite servicing capabilities.

As outlined in the March 28th, 2013 press release "the Government of Canada Awards Contract to Support Crucial Canadian Technology on the International Space Station," the $81Mln CDN contract will cover ongoing real-time technical support, engineering services, flight-specific operational products, software maintenance, and hardware repair for the iconic Canadarm 2 (known formally as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, or SSRMS), the Mobile Remote Servicer Base System (the MRSBS or "mobile base") and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (the SPDM or DEXTRE).


   
The announcement came only one day after the March 27th, 2013 Canadian Newswire (CNW) press release "MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. Closes $287.7 Million Offering of Common Shares," which detailed the recent Canadian equity issue of 4,145,750 new shares of MDA stock.

According to the press release, TD Securities, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., acted as the main underwriters (or "joint-bookrunners") for a syndicate which included National Bank Financial Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., Raymond James Ltd., Cormark Securities Inc. and GMP Securities LP.

MDA CFO Anil Wirasekara.

The day after the press release was issued, equities researchers at TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of MDA from $70.00 to $75.00 CDN.

According to MDA Chief Financial Officer Anil Wirasekara, "this is the first time MDA has issued equity to finance its growth."

It's quite possible that these new funds will be used for further acquisitions along the lines of the recent MDA purchase of Space Systems Loral (SS/L), as outlined in the June 27th, 2012 blog post "MacDonald Dettwiler buys Space Systems Loral for $875M."

In which case, stand by for further announcements and more good news from MDA.