I know there are other fans here of Professor Scott Galloway. His take on Virgin Galactic is fantastic - he calls it an “a cash machine for Branson’s failing airlines and cruise ship businesses”.
I’m honestly shocked and alarmed that anyone would hold shares in this terrible business. There’s no useful new technology here, there’s no sustainable business (environmentally or economically), it’s been sucking taxpayer money from the residents of New Mexico and its pre-public investors have been selling off their shares faster than a high altitude plane full of millionaires hitting the ground.
I would generally agree with your points if it was listed on the LSE where tradition valuations were the predominant metrics to determine stock movement.
However the psychology in the US is different, there’s lots of companies that have the ‘fake it till you make’ overlay to their business.
Sentiment is a huge pull factor for stock movement, especially for new industries. At the moment its terrible but once commercial flights start up and you see the likes of Elon going up, that will change.
Congratulations to Dicky Branson and King of the SPAC pump Chamath. You did it guys well done and you made it below $8.60 nearly 3 years ahead of schedule!
Virgin Galactic is continuing its parasitic relationship with … everyone & everything. They took a $200m space port from the tax payers of New Mexico and then managed to lobby to stop an 8% that would have been levied on the $450,000 ticket they sell to multimillionaires.
So virgin galactic have again opened reservations to try sell the 1st 1000 tickets as they didnt manage to sell out last time they opened them up.
Pretty disappointing news that they didnt sell all tickets last time but the market seems to be liking the news up over 13% PM.
If it’s got Richard Branson associated with it then don’t put any of your money into it. I wish national, state and local governments adopted the same approach.
However, even at three flights a month, Virgin Galactic would certainly lose a significant amount of money. Going off of its most recent financial statement, Virgin Galactic’s expenses are about $80 million a quarter. At $450,000 a seat—making the naive assumption of pure profit off of every customer, on every full flight—the company would require 30 full flights a quarter, or 10 flights a month, just to break even.
One day someone will realise that this business isn’t … well a business, it’s a hobby for an an adrenaline junkie who has off loaded most of his stake.
Chamath palihapitiya borrowed the 100 million he put in virgin galactic and also the 100 million he put in Clover and used the shares as leverage to get the loan from credit suisse.
Him & Chamath used this SPCE piggy bank