Investors in Japan sought to purchase more than 1 trillion yen ($6.2 billion) in shares during SpaceX’s historic initial public offering, according to two sources with knowledge of the transaction.
The sources, who requested anonymity because they lacked authorization to discuss the IPO publicly, noted that individual retail investors drove most of this demand.
According to a filing released Friday, Japanese investors ended up receiving $2.2 billion in shares.
This level of oversubscription mirrored the global appetite for shares in Elon Musk’s space exploration and satellite communications enterprise, which secured $75 billion through the largest public stock offering in history. Reuters reported earlier this week that worldwide investor interest reached $250 billion.
Mizuho Securities USA, the Japanese financial group’s division that served as the exclusive Japanese underwriter, refused to provide details about the total Japanese investor interest.
However, a spokesperson for Mizuho Securities revealed that an internal survey found over 1,000 Japan-based clients requested allocations exceeding 100 million yen ($624,500), with some seeking more than 10 billion yen.
The spokesperson also noted that new account applications at Mizuho Securities during the first third of June jumped to four times the 12-month average.
The public offering featured an uncommonly large retail investor allocation of up to 30%. Additional shares could become available if underwriters choose to exercise their option to sell extra stock, a choice typically made within 30 days following the offering.
($1 = 160.14 yen)
