Baillie Gifford investment trusts have raised their valuation of SpaceX for a third time in six months with its flagship Scottish Mortgage (SMT) now holding a highly concentrated 21% position in the Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence (AI) group seeking a record $1.78tn (£1.3trn) flotation next week.
Scottish Mortgage Trust and stablemates Schiehallion (MNTN), Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA) and Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) notified shareholders yesterday afternoon of an upwards adjustment in response to SpaceX setting the share price for its 12 June initial public offer (IPO) at $135 (£100).
As a result, Scottish Mortgage, whose market value has soared 42% to £16.9bn in the past six months largely on the back of the increased valuation in SpaceX, saw its weighting in the company rise from 17.9% at 30 April.
This values its investment in SpaceX at around £3.5bn.
Schiehallion now has 14.5% of its assets in SpaceX, up from 11,8%; USA 16.5% up from 13.8% and EWI 22% up from 18.9% at the end of April. Like SMT, their shares have also rallied on SpaceX almost quintupling from its $350bn valuation in December 2024.
Shares in all four slipped this morning, with SMT off 2.2%, as tech shares fell after results from AI chip maker Broadcom failed to hit investors’ high expectations. There is also concern about the lofty valuation SpaceX is seeking with Goldman Sachs pointing out that the IPO price hinges on its AI revenues surging by around 100 times by 2050.
Calculation by QuotedData indicates that Baillie Gifford is valuing SpaceX at $1.6trn, below the company’s target but well above the $780bn fair value assessment published by Morningstar analysts this week and an increase from its $1.25trn valuation at 30 April.
Our view
Richard Williams, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “The $1.6trn carrying value makes SpaceX’s IPO less of a valuation event, with the spotlight now on whether the market will maintain the $1.78trn valuation after listing – the risk is that the IPO price leaves limited room for execution errors. Whether shareholders ultimately benefit depends more on the terms of the lock-up period and where SpaceX trades at the end of that.”
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