Richard Branson Sells $300 Mln Stake In Virgin Galactic

(RTTNews) - Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.'s (SPCE) founder Sir Richard Branson has again sold another big stake in the space tourism company to fund his other projects.

Branson, through his Virgin Investments group, sold 10.4 million shares of Virgin Galactic this week, with prices ranging from $25.75 to $34.39 a share, according to an SEC filing. The stake was worth $300 million, according to InsiderScore.com.

"The Virgin Group continues to be the largest single shareholder in Virgin Galactic," Branson's parent company said in a statement. It added that it "intends to use the net proceeds from this sale to support its portfolio of global leisure, holiday and travel businesses that continue to be affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to supporting the development and growth of new and existing businesses."

This is the third time Branson has divested his stake in the company since taking it public through a SPAC merger in 2019. In May 2020, he had sold shares worth $504.5 million, and in April this year, he sold off stock worth $150.3 million.

Last week, the aerospace company reported second-quarter loss of $94 million or 39 cents a share on revenue of $571,000 versus a loss of $72 million or 34 cents a share on nil revenues in the year-ago quarter.

The space travel company also announced its plans to reopen space ticket sales. For the private astronaut market, the company would be offering three options of single seat, multi-seat as well as a full-flight buyout. Pricing for these offers would be starting at $450,000 a seat and would initially be prioritized for early hand -raisers and Spacefarer Community.

The company also announced that its next rocket-powered space flight, Unity 23, a revenue-generating flight with the Italian Air Force was targeted to occur in late -September.