Shares of Virgin Galactic were taken away on a Friday after President Chamath Palihapitiya charged his personal share for about $ 213 million.
Shares of space exploration firm Richard Branson fell 21 percent to a low of $ 23.95 after Palihapitiya, a prominent venture capitalist, revealed it had left the last 6.2 million shares of your personal portfolio.
Shares recently fell about 13 percent to $ 26.45 as of 2:10 p.m.
Virgin Galactic’s stock price doubled further at the start of the year, but has almost wiped out those gains since Feb. 11.
Palihapitiya previously cut its stake in the company by 3.8 million shares in December to release cash for new projects. He told Business Insider that the proceeds from the last sale will go “to a large investment I am making to fight climate change.”
“The details of this investment will be made public in the coming months,” the head of share capital told the media in a statement. “I stay as dedicated as ever to the Virgin Galactic team, mission and prospects.”
Palihapitiya and trading partner Ian Osborne still indirectly own about 16 million shares in the spacecraft builder through an investment company called SCH Sponsor Corp. The couple helped make Virgin Galactic public in 2019 by merging it with its special-purpose acquisition company, Social Capital Hedosophia.
Virgin Galactic completed its first rocket-propelled flight from its New Mexico spaceport in December and plans to finally bring paying customers into space.
More than 600 people have bought tickets for flights where they can see the Earth and experience weightlessness.
With publishing cables