Rocket Lab unlikely to have qualified for $2.85m grant
Rocket Lab’s financial statements show it made a $1.1m profit on $90m revenue for the year . . . The previous year it made a $32,000 loss.
Space company Rocket Lab is unlikely to have qualified for a $2.85 million Covid-19 wage subsidy it claimed in 2020.
Rocket Lab’s financial statements, uploaded to the Companies Office yesterday, said, after receiving the subsidy, the company noted that it was ‘‘unlikely that the conditions of the grant have been met’’.
The subsidy received had been recorded as a payable at December 31, the statements said.
The statements also show the company has a contract with government agency Callaghan Innovation that allows it to claim up to $5m a year for research and development.
Rocket Lab claimed the wage subsidy for 408 staff.
The Government set up the $14 billion wage subsidy scheme early on in the pandemic as a cash injection for businesses to help keep people in jobs.
It was administered by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and at its peak supported 1.8 million jobs.
To access the first round, companies had to have experienced a 30 per cent revenue drop over amonth between January and June compared with the same month in 2019. That decline had to be related to Covid-19. It was a ‘‘high trust’’ system and businesses that did not meet the revenue drop criteria were encouraged to pay it back.
A number of high-profile big businesses have done so as their profits recovered sharply after lockdown, such as The Warehouse, which repaid almost $70m. The number of refunds made hit 21,465 in early April. As at May 14, $708.8m had been repaid.
Rocket Lab’s financial statements show it made a $1.1m profit on $90m revenue for the year to December 31. The previous year it made a $32,000 loss. Rocket Lab was started in New Zealand in 2006 and is directed by space entrepreneur Peter Beck.
It has powerful United States investors and is headquartered in the US, but employs most of its staff in New Zealand where it has launched all its rockets to date from thema¯hia Peninsular near Gisborne.