Investors across Asia have been largely shut out of the world’s largest-ever initial public offering, which has forced them to find creative ways to make bets on SpaceX’s $75 billion global spectacle.
With no direct access to the IPO, traders from Seoul to Shanghai are piling into companies along the space supply chain, industry-themed ETFs and Nasdaq 100 Index-tracking funds in hopes of eventually capturing some of the gains that many expect once SpaceX shares hit the market. Crypto investors have been pushing up SpaceX perpetual futures, while some platforms offered more exotic derivatives.
“We have seen rising curiosity from clients across unusually diverse trading profiles and risk appetites,” said Hebe Chen, an analyst at Vantage Global Prime. “The level of interest around SpaceX feels less like a normal IPO inquiry and more like investors trying to secure a seat before the rocket leaves the launchpad.”
The routes vary sharply by market, with Japan and Australia the only countries in Asia Pacific where retail investors have direct access to the IPO.
Perpetual futures, contracts that don’t expire, tied to SpaceX were trading around $173 on the crypto venue Hyperliquid Friday morning in Hong Kong, implying a valuation of more than $2.2 trillion. The IPO priced at $135 apiece, for a fully diluted valuation of $1.8 trillion.
IG International, an online trading platform, offers financial derivatives called contracts-for-difference that allow traders to speculate on an asset without owning it, including some to bet on the end-of-first-day market value of pre-IPO companies. The CFDs for SpaceX were pricing a market value of $2.4 trillion, Friday morning in Singapore, implying a gain of more than 35% from the IPO price, Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG International, said by phone.
In South Korea, home to an army of famously voracious retail investors, some sought allocations through local broker Mirae Asset Securities via a private placement that sold out within one minute, according to Yonhap Infomax News. For everyone else, the next-best trade has become the supply chain and peers.
Companies linked to SpaceX have particularly attracted bets that a fresh influx of capital will ultimately filter down to suppliers and boost the entire industry from satellites and communications equipment to launch infrastructure.
Some companies in China and Taiwan have seen a groundswell of interest as a result.
Sunway Communication, which supplies Starlink-related ground terminal components, is up 60 per cent this year, while Lens Technology has jumped 41 per cent, both well ahead of the 2 per cent gain in the CSI 300 Index.
In Taiwan, investors have flocked to satellite and communications suppliers including WNC Corp, which has surged 175 per cent, Chin-Poon Industrial, up 91 per cent and Universal Microwave Technology, which has soared 147 per cent. According to media reports, all three have said they supply parts used by SpaceX, helping them outperform even the Taiex index, which has been among the world’s best benchmarks this year with a 49 per cent gain.
Whether such trades ultimately deliver SpaceX-like returns is far less certain, but the scramble itself highlights how the mega listing has become one of the dominant investment themes for retail investors across the region.
The ETF route is proving equally popular. Investors are increasingly drawn to space-focused products such as the ARK Space and Defense Innovation ETF — which is set for its second consecutive quarter of at least $200 million of inflows for the first time in five years — and other aerospace funds that hold satellite and communications companies.
The Futu Holdings Ltd.-owned online brokerage Moomoo in a note to clients highlighted ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF, Baron First Principles ETF and Tema Space Innovators ETF among those that have consistently held SpaceX.
Others are opting for broad-based Nasdaq vehicles on the expectation that SpaceX’s enormous market value could quickly make it a meaningful component of major technology indexes after listing on Friday morning in the US.
SpaceX could enter the Nasdaq-100 as soon as about 15 trading days after its Nasdaq debut, provided it meets Nasdaq’s size, liquidity and eligibility requirements.
“Our advice to our clients is centering on two strategic tracks: direct participation in the secondary market and accumulating pre-existing fund structures that hold early private equity allocations,” said Louis Wong, a director at Phillip Securities in Hong Kong.
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