Virgin Galactic is the 1st publicly traded company dedicated to space
Take me to your leader... Virgin Galactic's founder is Richard Branson — he hit billionaire and British "Sir" status by founding Virgin Records music, Virgin Atlantic airline, and Virgin Hotels. But Richard called this IPO "the most satisfying" of all. Virgin Galactic's ticker is "SPCE," now traded on the NYSE after Monday's IPO.
This business is astronomically unprofitable... Since its 2004 launch, VG exists because Sir Branson has invested almost $1B to own 51% of the shares today. Here's its corporate timeline:
- Past: 600 very wealthy people (including Bieber and Leo DiCaprio) splurged $250K for a spot on Virgin's virgin voyages for summer 2020. They get a 90-minute ride on a hybrid spaceship/airplane for 3 minutes of spacetime.
- Present: VG only brought in $2.4M in revenue last year, but spent $140M, causing a Jupiter-sized loss.
- Future: Initially only affordable by the ultra-Bieber-rich, VG wants to make space tourism accessible to all humans over time by eventually lowering prices.
Virgin Galactic is incomparable... Investors love "comps" that help them assess the value of one company by referencing another (it's easier to evaluate Lyft when you know how much Uber is worth). But Virgin's comps don't exist in the public markets.
- Tourism?: Airlines or cruise lines don't feel the same as Virgin.
- Tesla?: Both catered to the wealthy initially with hopes to eventually lower prices for the rest of us.
- Private: The real comps are Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. But those 2 pals kept their space companies private, so Virgin investors face an uncharted public market ride.