From Wall Street to Main Street, Elon Musk’s hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) for SpaceX tomorrow has hit a fever pitch with anyone and everyone. Headlines are buzzing about it in superlatives including “blockbuster” and “record-breaking.”
As the rocket company heads into the final countdown to its stock market debut on Friday, June 12 (here’s a clock from Yahoo Finance), here’s what to know. (There is no set time for trading to begin, but companies often wait a bit after the market opens.)
What’s happening?
SpaceX set its final IPO price at $135 a share, and will sell 555.5 million shares of its Class A common stock. The company’s total valuation is reported at $1.77 trillion.
The offering is expected to close on June 15. In addition, SpaceX has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 83.3 million shares of its Class A common stock at the IPO price.
On Friday, the stock will begin trading publicly on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker “SPCX.”
While no one can predict exactly what will happen, the share price is likely to fluctuate once trading begins. The question on everyone’s mind: Is the price tag too high?
Currently, the SpaceX IPO stands to be the largest IPO ever, topping Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant, which currently has a market capitalization of around $1.74 trillion.
“It’s a big deal because it’s literally a big deal,” analyst Matt Kennedy told The New York Times. The Renaissance Capital senior strategist called the deal “very pricey” and warned that a poor market debut could drag the market down and signal “the market peaked.”
So, there’s a lot more riding on SpaceX’s Nasdaq launch than just the share price for investors. The whole market will be watching.
What makes this IPO different?
Beyond the hype (with headlines such as: “SpaceX is getting ready to break new records—and make one of the world’s wealthiest men even wealthier”), this IPO is actually different than other stock debuts. SpaceX is estimated to make between 20% and 30% of its shares available to regular retail investors—much higher than the typical 5% to 10% allocation—for purchase through Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, E-Trade, and SoFi. Fidelity even decided to cut its account minimum for those who want in on the action.
