Richard Branson has acquired a stake in Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC, the first venture capital fund focused on the space sector, as part of a ￡178 million (US$247 million) initial public offering (IPO).
The billionaire purchased stock in London-based Seraphim in a sale that closed on Friday last week, Seraphim chairman Will Whitehorn said in an interview on Monday.
He declined to disclose the size of the commitment.
Photo: Reuters
Branson is backing the UK firm as his own Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc prepares to carry tourists to the edge of space.
The entrepreneur and five other crew on Sunday rocketed in a test flight to an altitude of 85km, high enough to experience weightlessness and view the curvature of the Earth.
Virgin Group confirmed that Branson is a Seraphim investor.
Whitehorn, a former Virgin Galactic president, said that Airbus SE was among other parties to buy shares of Seraphim, which is set to start trading today on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
The European aircraft maker rolled over its existing investment in Seraphim funds.
The closed-ended investment firm said that the IPO had been oversubscribed, with applications scaled back to equal the ￡150 million originally targeted.
A further ￡28.4 million has been raised in connection with the acquisition of 15 initial assets.
Whitehorn said the positioning of the flotation between Branson’s space mission and another to be flown on Tuesday next week by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos was entirely fortuitous and came about after the Seraphim IPO was delayed.
“A lot of our advisers thought we were taking a risk once they saw the timing of Richard’s flight,” Whitehorn said. “It could have been that things did not work out quite so well.”
Companies such as Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp and Branson’s Virgin Orbit have brought attention to the sector by making satellite launches less costly, creating opportunities for new businesses in space.
The Seraphim portfolio features five “unicorns” — start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion.
Seraphim has been investing in space since 2016 and is switching to a listed vehicle so that backers can achieve returns without the firm needing to exit assets.
About half of the IPO proceeds are to be reserved for start-ups with no UK links, in which it previously had been unable to invest.
Virgin Galactic shares on Monday tumbled the most in almost seven months after the disclosure of the potential sale of as much as US$500 million of shares, which suggested the firm’s need for more funds as it prepares its commercial debut.
Virgin Galactic shares plunged 17 percent to US$40.69 at the close in New York, the biggest decline since Dec. 14 last year.
The volatile shares, which have seesawed this month, doubled this year through Friday last week as the company got its test-flight program back on track.
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