Astroscale, a space debris removal startup, aims to list in Tokyo as early as June, bringing a high-profile venture public in a field with out-of-this-world prospects and real risks. said an official.
The 11-year-old Japanese company met with foreign institutional investors in March to provide feedback before deciding to list, said two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. He said he collected them.
According to people involved and third parties, the lead underwriters are Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities and Mizuho Securities.
Astroscale, founded by former government bureaucrat Shin Okada, has developed technology to remove orbital junk such as spent satellites and rockets that are deemed to be at risk of collision, and has It has received government support.
The company considered going public last year, but postponed it due to valuation discrepancies and other reasons, and one of the people said it may postpone it again depending on investor feedback.
Astroscale, which also develops technology to extend the lifespan of satellites, is eyeing iSpace. 99348 As one reference for potential evaluation. The lunar rover went public last year and is valued at about $450 million following recent stock declines.
Astroscale did not respond to requests for comment via email or phone. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities and Mizuho Securities declined to comment.
risk tolerance
The government is supporting startups and industry giants such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to foster the space sector. 
7011to cooperate with the United States and compete with China.
The goal is to double the size of the domestic space sector to 8 trillion yen ($53 billion) by the beginning of the next decade.
In going public, Astroscale will follow in the footsteps of iSpace and satellite imaging company Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space (iQPS). Five5595whose stock price has risen more than 700% since its initial public offering in December.
Kazumi Tanaka, an analyst at DZH Financial Research, said that as the government offers support for the space sector, space-related companies are attracting attention. “Space-related startups are growing rapidly and are popular among individual investors. It will be,” he said.
However, he said it is difficult for some companies to make business forecasts.
Sources said that while market sentiment is generally positive with the Nikkei 225 stock average near record highs, institutional investors are taking a critical look at the space sector because of the risks involved.
The explosion of Japanese launch company Space One’s Kairos rocket last month highlighted the dangers.
Tokyo-based iSpace suffered a failure with its Hakuto-R moon landing mission last April. The company issued new shares to overseas investors last month, halving the number of shares and raising 8.4 billion yen.
A foreign institutional investor who participated in the offering said that the stock was not a stock he could hold for the long term due to the uncertain economic outlook.
Investors have already sold their shares.
One of the sources said, “From the perspective of institutional investors who keep their funds and look at the risk and return of the market, ispace clearly exceeds their risk tolerance.”
The price of ispace stock has fallen by almost a third since early March and is trading below its issue price of 871 yen.
“We are extremely proud of the confidence that both individual and institutional investors in Japan and around the world have shown in ispace,” the company said in a statement, adding that it has a solid business plan with achievable goals. Ta.
The second iSpace lunar module mission is scheduled to launch this year. The company plans to begin NASA-sponsored moonshots in 2026.
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