Brendan McDermid / Reuters
- Virgin Galactic shares rose 18% on Thursday.
- The space tourism group can be added to Ark Investment Management’s planned ETF for space exploration.
- The fund manages a total of $ 42 billion in ETF products, Bloomberg estimates.
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Virgin Galactic shares rose 18% on Thursday, increasing its market capitalization by more than $ 1 billion, after a large investment fund revealed plans to launch an exchange-traded fund.
Investors in the commercial space business – which sees billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson as co-founder and billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya as chairman – bet it will be included in Ark Investment Management’s ARK Space Exploration ETF.
Read more: The space industry will grow by more than $ 1 trillion in the next decade, says Bank of America. Here are the 14 stocks that are best positioned to take advantage of the boom.
Ark, led by Cathie Wood, founder and chief investment officer, already has seven ETFs focused on areas such as genomics, 3D printing, robotics and financial technology. Its flagship Ark Innovation ETF considers Tesla to be its biggest stake.
Thanks to a massive influx of investment capital over the past few months, Ark now oversees $ 42 billion in ETF products – a sharp increase from less than $ 4 billion a year ago, according to Bloomberg estimates.
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Wood and her team plan to actively manage their space ETF. They plan to invest in domestic and foreign companies engaged in space exploration and innovation, and own between 40 and 55 shares.