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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is expected to begin its initial public offering (IPO) process as early as this week, with projections suggesting it could immediately rank as the world’s seventh-largest company by market capitalization. The anticipated listing is also expected to raise a record-breaking amount of capital, fueling a rally in South Korea’s aerospace-related stocks.
On March 25, most aerospace-related shares in the Korean stock market posted strong gains. Hanwha Aerospace rose 4.87% to close at KRW 1.4 million. LIG Nex1 and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) also climbed 14.51% and 4.93%, respectively.
Small- and mid-cap stocks listed on the KOSDAQ saw even sharper increases. Kenko Aerospace surged 17.39%, while RF Systems jumped 21.10%, marking the biggest gain among aerospace-related stocks that day. Aerospace-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including TIGER K-Defense & Space ETF (+7.03%) and PLUS Aerospace & UAM ETF (+6.09%), also advanced.
The rally was largely driven by expectations surrounding SpaceX’s IPO. The company is reportedly set to file for listing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as early as this week. Upon listing, SpaceX is projected to achieve a valuation of up to KRW 2,600 trillion (approximately $1.75 trillion) and raise around KRW 113 trillion (approximately $75 billion), far surpassing the previous record of $29 billion set by Saudi Aramco.
Market participants expect that the influx of capital into global aerospace companies will drive structural growth across the broader industry ecosystem.
AlphaBIZ Kim SangJin(ceo@alphabiz.co.kr)
