Richard Branson plans to take Virgin Galactic public

Richard Branson is preparing Virgin Galactic for a public listing.

The billionaire’s space tourism company will go public as part of a deal with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Social Capital Hedosophia, a special purpose acquisition company formed by venture capital firms Social Capital and Hedosophia, will reportedly pay $800 million for 49% of Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic declined to comment.

The deal should help Virgin Galactic raise money needed to compete against competitors including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and provide a way for stock market investors to back Branson in the billionaire’s space race.






