27 July 2019
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is to become the first publicly traded company for human space travel after it announced a merger with a major investment vehicle.
Virgin Galactic has announced a deal to combine with New York-listed Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH), led by former Facebook executive ChamathPalihapitiya. The deal has an enterprise value of 1.5 billion US dollars (ÂŁ1.2 billion) and is expected to give current shareholders of SCH a 49% stake in the enlarged firm.
Once the transaction has been completed, Virgin Galactic will become the first and only publicly traded commercial human spaceflight company. The company, which plans to offer multi-day trips to space, will use the money raised from the merger to turn Virgin Galactic’s technology into a commercial operation, following two test-flights of its spaceship the VSS Unity. The business’s current management, led by chief executive George T Whitesides, will remain in place. MrPalihapitiya will become chairman of the board and has pledged to invest an additional 100 million US dollars (£80.3 million) as part of the transaction. Former Twitter executive Adam Bain will also join the board.
Striking the deal to go public could see Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic building a UK spaceport launch base on British soil. Virgin Galactic has had “strong interest” from UK authorities in regards to expansion outside of the US. So far the company has sold 600 tickets to aspiring astronauts, raking in 80 million US dollars in the process. The company’s VSS Unity ship was launched into space with three astronauts on board in February, carrying a test passenger to the edge of space for the first time.
