Shares of ispace Inc untraded in Tokyo debut as buy orders overwhelm sale offers

Ispace

12/04/2023 01:39

By Rocky Swift
       TOKYO, April 12 (Reuters) - Shares of lunar
transportation start-up ispace Inc  9348.T  went untraded in
their market debut in Tokyo early on Wednesday, as bids
overwhelmed offers. 
    The company, which has a probe already en route for the
moon, raised 6.7 billion yen ($50 million) in an initial public
offering (IPO).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N33102I
    Shares of ispace were last bid at 293 yen on the Tokyo
exchange's growth market, 15% above their IPO price of 254 yen. 
    The start-up, which has a contract with NASA to ferry
payloads to the moon from 2025 and is targeting building a
permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040, aims to be the first
commercial company to land a probe on the moon.
    In December its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander was launched
aboard a SpaceX rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, carrying two robotic rovers.
    ispace said in a statement on Wednesday it expects the
lander to touch down on the moon's surface on April 26 at the
earliest.
    
    

 (Reporting by Rocky Swift and David Dolan; Editing by Kenneth
Maxwell)
 ((rocky.swift@thomsonreuters.com))