Space Firm Chief Accountant Got IPO Ready With Specialized Hires

Voyager Technologies Inc. got ready for its recent debut as a publicly traded company by hiring specialized accountants and practicing quarterly financial reporting.

“We wanted to build those practice reps in the background so that we weren’t kind of surprised and staggered,” Voyager’s chief accounting officer Lance Weber told Bloomberg Tax.

The aerospace and defense company raised $383 million in an initial public offering in June. It’s among a shrinking cohort of public businesses. The number of US public companies totaled about 4,000 last year—around half the tally in 1996, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

That decline has increased scrutiny on factors that might be deterring IPOs. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins has launched an effort to “make IPOs great again” amid the decades-long slump, focusing on simplifying disclosure requirements and reforming the shareholder litigation landscape.

Still, the ranks of private companies continue to grow as many large firms can raise similar amounts outside the public markets, the BI analysis suggests.

In the debate over whether there are too many burdens in the IPO process, Voyager’s Weber said he sees “both sides of the coin.” Compliance hurdles are part of critical “pressure testing” for companies to ensure they’re ready to supply public investors with accurate financial reports, he said.

Quarterly Filings

Quarterly reports have recently come under scrutiny, with President Donald Trump calling for less frequent financial reporting to ease corporate workflows.

These SEC filings, called Form 10-Qs, contain information including financial statements and management analysis.

The ongoing costs and administrative burdens of issuing quarterly financial statements “can be a significant deterrent to entering the public market,” Long-Term Stock Exchange Inc. said in a September petition for the SEC to amend rules by allowing a semiannual reporting option.

Weber said he would personally appreciate a semiannual option that could allow for more time to think about longer-term financial results, as well as give extra breathing room to strengthen internal financial guardrails.

Whether companies publish financial updates quarterly or semiannually, internal procedures would still need to be robust, Weber said.

“Those numbers are still going to have to be accurate in that period and you’re going to have to report on them,” he said.

Talent Emphasis

Weber stressed the importance of adequate accounting personnel to meet the demands of the IPO process, which involves regulatory filings and financial calculations.

He previously worked as segment controller at a space technology business and as a member of audit firm PwC’s capital markets group. He joined as Voyager’s accounting chief in 2023 and prioritized building his department. The team has grown by about 30% with more technical accounting and tax expertise on staff, Weber said.

The team’s growth and internal training have been “absolutely crucial because without that we wouldn’t have had the capacity to actually tackle all the challenges that we needed to,” he said.

Voyager, headquartered in Denver, provides defense and space services. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Voyager’s airlock, which facilitates more efficient equipment transfers, became the first permanent, commercial addition to the International Space Station in 2020, according to the company.

Aerospace-specific expertise has also been key to helping with accounting tasks like “percentage-of-completion” reporting, Weber said, referring to a method for accounting over the course of long-term contracts and projects.

Companies such as Voyager are hiring from an accounting profession that’s seen a contraction in its workforce. The average number of open accounting and finance roles is five, up from two in 2024, according to a survey by outsourcing firm Personiv.

Voyager has several remote accountants, which has been a way to alleviate some of the stress of finding personnel in local markets, Weber said.

Looking Ahead

The Voyager accounting team’s next challenge is to prepare to meet requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that call for an external auditor to attest to management’s assessment of internal financial reporting controls, Weber said.

The company filed a registration statement with the SEC as an emerging growth company, a set of businesses that are exempt from those requirements under the post-Enron law. Management teams at these companies, like all public firms, must still evaluate the effectiveness of the internal controls.

Weber also is keeping changes to the US accounting rulebook on his radar.

Specifically, he pointed to final rule changes released by the US accounting board in 2024 that require public companies to detail amounts spent on certain expenses, including staff salaries and inventory purchases. Public companies are required to adopt the guidance in annual reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2026.

Weber said he’s curious to see how aerospace companies approach the requirements. Companies in the industry, active in government contracting, can be wary of revealing too much information about their business activities to rivals competing for bids.

“We’re going to have a lot to think about when it comes to that,” Weber said.