Shares of South Korean companies with ties to SpaceX are surging after the U.S. rocket maker closed higher despite the first large-scale expiry of its post-listing lockup. Analysts cautioned against hasty momentum buying, as further releases of locked-up SpaceX shares are set to accelerate.
As of 2:34 p.m. on the 10th, Mirae Asset Venture Investment was trading at 16,530 won, up 16.49% from the previous session, according to the Korea Exchange. Aju IB Investment changed hands at 3,600 won, up 13.74%. The two venture capital firms sharply extended their gains shortly after the market opened. Investment demand appears to have flowed into related stocks after SpaceX rose 6.14% on the 6th despite the end of its lockup period, then extended the gains the following day. Both Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Aju IB Investment are reported to hold SpaceX stakes through past investments.
On the 4th, SpaceX said it posted second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion (about 11.14 trillion won), up 92% from $4.1 billion a year earlier. Its operating loss narrowed sharply to $143 million (about 204 billion won) from $970 million in the same quarter last year. SpaceX shares were strong during regular trading that day but fell 8.5% in after-hours trading, apparently because plans for large-scale capital spending, including expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers, spread unease among investors.
The repeated gains in SpaceX shares, despite the negative of the lockup release, are attributed to buying by individual investors at home and abroad who hold strong faith in the vision of Chief Executive Elon Musk. According to a Wall Street Journal report citing Vanda Research, individual investors net bought about $23 million worth of shares in the first hour of trading on the 5th, even as the stock plunged after the earnings release.
Securities market watchers in South Korea are keeping an eye on lockup releases scheduled ahead. According to SpaceX’s securities filing, 319 million shares will be freed from lockup on the 20th of this month, about 700 million shares in September, and a similar amount in October will become tradable in sequence. The batch of shares recently freed from lockup totaled 912 million, or about 7% of total shares outstanding.
An official in the securities industry advised: “Newly listed companies can see their shares swing depending on the release of existing shareholders’ locked-up shares. Investors should weigh a range of variables, including a company’s fundamentals and the remaining lockup release schedule.”
#SpaceX#ElonMusk#VentureCapital#KoreanStocks#LockupExpiry#MiraeAsset#AjuIB
Original reporting by Lee Deok-yeon for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
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