Shares of Japanese moon lander-maker Ispace went untraded on a glut of buy orders on their market debut as investors bet on the startup and the country¡¯s space-development efforts.
Shares were quoted at ?585, or more than twice the offering price of ?254 at market close on Wednesday, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The initial public offering had valued the Tokyo-based company at about ?20 billion ($150 million), according to Bloomberg calculations.
The listing comes ahead of the highly-anticipated arrival of the company¡¯s first lunar lander, which was launched via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December carrying two rovers and other payloads. The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida following multiple delays, is scheduled to touch down as early as this month.
A successful operation would pave the way for the Japanese startup, led by Takeshi Hakamada, to become the maker of the world¡¯s first commercial spacecraft to land on the moon. The firm plans to use a part of the proceeds to develop lunar landers and pay for launches that will be carried out by Elon Musk¡¯s SpaceX.
The company is ¡°going where no Japanese company has gone before,¡± Mark Chadwick, an analyst who publishes on Smartkarma, wrote of ispace in a note last month. ¡°The success of the IPO will provide ispace with the capital needed to support its lunar exploration initiatives and attract more investors to support its growth and development.¡±
The escalating U.S.-China space rivalry and Musk¡¯s ambitious Mars program have spurred startups around the world to chase new contracts for tapping resources on the lunar surface and further out in space. Much like Musk¡¯s dream for a Martian colony, ispace¡¯s grand vision is to build a human settlement on the moon by 2040. But before that it wants to become the lunar version of FedEx ¡ª earning money by ferrying scientific equipment and commercial goods to the moon.
The Mission 1 lander is part of a $73 million NASA contract won by a team led by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Draper. The deal envisages end-to-end delivery services to the moon under the U.S. Artemis program.
Prior to the IPO, in August 2021, ispace was valued at about ?76 billion in a Series C equity financing. Led by Incubate Fund, the round brought in six other investors including SoftBank Group¡¯s former chief strategy officer Katsunori Sago.
¡°The future of Japan¡¯s space program looks bright with the potential of ispace¡¯s pioneering efforts,¡± Chadwick wrote.
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