SpaceX IPO: Retail Investors in US, UK, and Japan Get Shares, While South Korea Gets 'Zero'

SpaceX opted for a "fandom public offering" targeting retail investors worldwide in its record-breaking initial public offering (IPO), but South Korean investors did not receive a single share.

In contrast to retail investors in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan who shared the IPO stock, the allocation for Mirae Asset Securities, which participated as an underwriter, was completely cut in the final stage, Bloomberg News and other outlets reported on Tuesday, June 16.

SpaceX announced on June 11 that it had set its IPO price at $135 per share and would sell 555.56 million shares of Class A common stock to raise $75 billion (approximately 114 trillion won).

Subsequently, as underwriters exercised their over-allotment option (greenshoe), the final number of shares issued increased to 638.89 million, and the amount raised rose to $85.7 billion (approximately 130 trillion won).

This is about three times the previous record of $29 billion set by Saudi Aramco.

In particular, the subscription frenzy was further fueled by an unprecedented structure that allocated up to 30% of the IPO shares to retail investors.

Although the final retail allocation ratio was lowered to 20%, global subscription demand exceeded $100 billion (approximately 152 trillion won).

By country, retail investors in the United States received the most significant benefits.

All eligible customers who applied for subscriptions through major retail brokerages such as Robinhood, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and SoFi received at least one share.

The number of subscribers on Robinhood alone reached 855,424.

Wall Street evaluated that this allocation method was elaborately designed to maximize the role of retail investors, who had previously been sidelined in large-scale IPOs.

SpaceX also chose a regional offering method targeting retail investors worldwide to ensure the success of the IPO.

In Japan, subscriptions poured in exceeding 1 trillion yen (approximately 9.4 trillion won), and ultimately 16.3 million shares, worth $2.2 billion (approximately 3.33 trillion won), were allocated.

The allocation was conducted through a lottery system via three brokerages: SBI Securities, Rakuten Securities, and Mizuho Securities.

In the UK, $364 million (approximately 552 billion won) worth of shares were allocated out of about $1 billion in subscriptions, while investors in European regions excluding the UK were allocated $600 million (approximately 909 billion won) worth of shares out of $2.5 billion in subscriptions.

Although European investors also expressed disappointment due to the low allocation ratio relative to subscription demand, the situation in South Korea was different, as they did not even receive a portion.

Mirae Asset Securities, which participated as an underwriter, was originally scheduled to be allocated about 2.31 million shares, but the lead underwriter, Goldman Sachs, clawed back the entire volume in the final stage.

Investors' anger remains unabated, given that South Korea was the only country left out even as the number of issued shares increased due to the exercise of the greenshoe option.

Mirae Asset Securities refunded the subscription deposits in full and stated, "We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers," but the controversy is growing as top management, including Chairman Park Hyeon-joo, had actively promoted the offering before the allocation was finalized.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched an inspection of Mirae Asset Securities with no set deadline and may also look into internal control issues.

On June 15, the second day of its listing, SpaceX's stock price closed at $192.5, up 42.6% from its IPO price, driving its market capitalization to $2.5 trillion and instantly making it the world's sixth-largest company.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.