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NEW YORK: Individual investors eager for a piece of SpaceX’s mega IPO scrutinised their e-mail inboxes and brokerage accounts to see just how big a slice of the pie they received — while others went straight to the open market to scoop them up on day one.
From the start, SpaceX and its underwriters had determined to set aside as much as 30pc of the shares sold to the public in the IPO for retail investors. That meant that whipping up interest and buying orders from this group was crucial. Getting an allocation to the stock was competitive, and some retail investors just dived into the market to buy.
“I’m very happy with what I managed to get,” said Joseph Gutheinz, who retired from Nasa as an investigator to practice law. Gutheinz did not think of trying to submit an IPO allocation request but managed to buy $100,000 of shares at $161 on Friday.
“It’s a great investment,” he said. “Win or lose, I’m happy to be invested at all.” Retail buying was one of the factors responsible for the pop in the price of SpaceX shares, which surged 19pc on their first day of trading, said Art Hogan, investment strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston.
