By Echo Wang
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for one of the most anticipated IPOs in history as it hosts analysts this week for three days of closed-door meetings at its launch facility in Texas and mega-sized data center in Tennessee, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Elon Musk's company is holding the briefings for Wall Street's top aerospace and technology analysts as it looks to raise $75 billion, in what would be the world's biggest-ever IPO,
with executives targeting a late June trading debut.
The presentations kick off with an all-day meeting and analyst tour on Tuesday at the satellite and rocket maker's Starbase launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, the people said.
Another group of analysts representing institutional investors, including big mutual funds and pension plans, will be briefed in a separate session at Starbase on Wednesday, the people said. On Thursday, the analysts have been invited to review the company's "Macrohard" project at its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, they added.
Attendees are expected to surrender electronic devices to participate in the meetings, one of the people said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was the first to report on the plans to host analysts earlier this month. The inclusion of Starbase on the tour and the three days of briefings have not been reported previously.
IPO PROCESS
Analyst days are a standard part of the IPO process, in which companies brief analysts on their business, financial outlook and long-term strategy ahead of a public listing.
Some of the analysts scheduled to attend have also received copies of SpaceX’s confidential registration filing, though the document contained limited information, two of the people said.
Generally, IPO registration statements include a company’s business description, financial statements, risk factors, how it plans to use the money it raises as well as details on major existing shareholders.
About two weeks after the analyst days, SpaceX is expected to hold a separate "modeling" day for a select group of Wall Street analysts, some of whose banks are working on the deal, two of the people said.
At such sessions, companies typically walk analysts through their financial projections, business thesis and the other key data that will help analysts calculate their earnings estimates before the listing.
SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen has about two months to convince some of Wall Street's top analysts – and ultimately investors – that the company is worth an almost unfathomable $1.75 trillion.
Musk merged xAI with SpaceX in February, bringing together the billionaire's rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and Grok AI chatbot under one roof.
The combination created a tech and aerospace conglomerate like no other, but it also makes valuing SpaceX tricky. To justify the $75 billion Musk hopes to raise as well as the lofty valuation, at least one large institutional investor has been using unusual benchmarks to explain the math, Reuters previously reported.
Rather than comparing SpaceX to legacy aerospace and telecom giants like Boeing and AT&T, that investor has been benchmarking it against Palantir Technologies and artificial intelligence infrastructure companies like GE Vernova and Vertiv — a framework described to Reuters by a person familiar with the valuation discussions.
RETAIL INVESTORS
Musk also plans to reward the retail investors who have sent shares of electric vehicle company Tesla to illogical heights, trading at a valuation closer to a tech company than an automaker.
He is planning to set aside some 30% of SpaceX shares for retail investors, hosting 1,500 of them to tour Starbase after the roadshow kicks off during the week of June 8, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.
Musk is also opening up initial share sales to international retail investors from the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea, Reuters previously reported.
The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalized closer to the IPO launch. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks in smaller roles spanning institutional, retail and international channels, Reuters previously reported.
(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Writing by Dawn Kopecki; Editing by Jamie Freed)
