17th annual awards recognized the firm’s evolved turnaround and restructuring consulting skills in the sale of Masten Space Systems to Astrobotic Technology
WILMINGTON, DE (March 24, 2023) – Gavin/Solmonese has been named the winner of The M&A Advisor’s “Industrials Deal of the Year” award in recognition of their work ensuring the successful sale of Masten Space Systems Inc. to Astrobotic Technology, Inc. This prestigious honor, given in conjunction with The M&A Advisor 17th Annual Turnaround Awards, recognizes the year’s leading distressed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, restructuring, refinancing, products and services, firms, and dealmakers.
Gavin/Solmonese, which served as Chief Restructuring Officer and Asset Sale Advisor for Masten, proudly shares the award with other key partners engaged in the sale— Morris James LLP (counsel for Masten); Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and Cozen O’Connor (counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors); Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP (counsel for Astrobotic, the purchaser), and Arent Fox LLP (counsel for SpaceX). The group was recognized at a black-tie event during The M&A Advisor Distressed Investing Summit in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 22.
“A transaction like this can only happen one way—with strong collaboration from start to finish and an unwavering commitment to creating value for stakeholders, which is exactly what we had,” said Ted Gavin, CTP, NCPM, Managing Director of Gavin/Solmonese. “It was an honor for us to work with such a respected group of business partners who each brought unique areas of expertise to the table, respected each other’s specialties, and knew exactly how to best integrate our resources. We worked impeccably to not only create the pathway to value and facilitate a successful sale, but to do so in a way that supported the needs of both companies and Astrobotic’s long-term vision.”
Corporate recovery consultants Gavin/Solmonese were brought in to support Masten Space in its bankruptcy filing. Gavin/Solmonese—which was initially retained as advisors, then as chief restructuring officer, as well as an investment banker—advised against a Chapter 7 case and helped Masten Space file for Chapter 11.
The sale to Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based developer of space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions, came as the company ran out of money. During the turnaround of the company, Masten briefly halted operations to find novel asset strategies that could form the basis of a sale and allow for resumed operations. The sale was facilitated through Masten’s Chapter 11 filing, which was done to preserve the value of Masten’s contracts, intellectual property, and highly skilled employee base. In the eleventh hour, Astrobotic agreed to provide Masten with necessary debtor-in-possession financing to allow the bankruptcy case to move forward, and acquired the company and most employees, assumed valuable aerospace contracts in order to allow programs to continue, retained many vendors, and the sale generated enough value to provide for a distribution to Masten’s unsecured creditors.
For a complete list of winners from the 17th annual Turnaround Awards, click here.