NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) – SpaceX has reserved 5% of the shares in its planned initial public offering for certain employees and individuals selected by its executive officers, exempting them from post-IPO lock-up restrictions, according to a regulatory filing released on Monday.
The shares will be offered at the IPO price through a directed share program. The company said any reserved shares not purchased through the program would be sold to the general public.
The filing did not disclose how many shares would ultimately be allocated under the arrangement or identify the eligible recipients.
The disclosure provides another example of SpaceX’s unusual approach to post-IPO share sales as the rocket and satellite company pursues a valuation of about $1.75 trillion.
While most newly public companies impose broad restrictions on insider sales for roughly six months after listing, SpaceX has created exceptions for some participants and plans a phased release of restricted shares tied partly to company performance and stock-price targets.
Under the structure, certain shareholders could begin selling stock shortly after SpaceX reports its first quarterly earnings following the IPO, provided specified conditions are met. Additional portions of the restricted pool would become eligible for sale over subsequent months, with all remaining shares unlocked after six months.
The filing shows SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who controls 85.1% of the company’s voting power and holds 12.3% of Class A shares, has agreed not to sell stock for about a year after the company goes public. Other significant investors are also subject to one-year restrictions, although the filing does not disclose the size of their holdings.
Staggered lock-up structures were more common during the IPO boom of 2020 and 2021, when companies including Airbnb, DoorDash and Snowflake used phased share-release mechanisms. More recently, AI chip designer Cerebras and cybersecurity company Rubrik have adopted similar approaches.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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