Dharamshala, 13^th July: Virgin Galactic, the British-American aerospace business established by Sir Richard Branson, filed to sell up to $500 million in stock to investors on Monday morning, barely one day after completing a historic space voyage that generated huge hoopla and (briefly) raised share prices. On Sunday, Branson and his crew flew more than 50 miles above the Earth’s surface, experiencing weightlessness for eight minutes and becoming the first billionaire to leave the planet in his own spacecraft, beating out Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, whose companies Blue Origin and SpaceX have similar space ambitions. The successful trip is the second in a series of tests designed to prepare the firm for its first commercial passengers, who are slated to begin flying next year if all goes well.

Virgin Galactic has been a huge favorite of Reddit traders this year who have been piling into massively shorted companies. During a first-quarter trading frenzy that saw fellow meme stocks GameStop and AMC Entertainment rise, Virgin shares soared more than 150 percent to an all-time closing high above $54.50 in early February. Despite a 20% drop since then, current prices of around $43 are still nearly 15% higher than the average one-year projection for shares (of $37.90) among Wall Street analysts. 1.2 billion dollars That is how much Virgin’s market capitalization, which is now at $10.8 billion, fell as a result of the announcement. Branson and his Virgin Group still own 24 percent of the corporation.

• Virgin announced in a regulatory filing on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to sell up to $500 million in stock at market pricing, but it has not yet said when it plans to do so.
• As part of the disclosure, the 17-year-old company boasted its first successful spaceflight on Sunday, which carried a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists.
• The net proceeds of the transaction will be used to increase its spaceship fleet, upgrade infrastructure, and “co-create, acquire, or invest” in items that are “complementary” to its business, according to the company.
• Virgin shares, which had hired Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley for the offering, fell more than 10% within minutes of the announcement, reversing premarket gains of about 5%.

Image Source: getty image

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