South Korea’s Mirae Asset Misses Out on SpaceX’s Historic $75 Billion IPO Due to Order Miscommunication

Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea’s largest investment bank by market value, failed to secure any shares in SpaceX’s record-breaking initial public offering (IPO), which raised $75 billion and valued the company at $1.77 trillion. The incident has caused significant embarrassment for Mirae Asset, prompting an unusual apology to its clients and drawing scrutiny from South Korean financial regulators.

The failure stemmed from a critical misunderstanding during the IPO process. Mirae Asset mistakenly treated an early "expression of interest" phase as the binding order submission, while the official order placement only began weeks later. Consequently, over $1.1 billion in Korean investor demand was never formally recorded in the IPO books, leading to Mirae Asset receiving zero allocation of SpaceX shares.

This misstep occurred during an internal stage known as "Project Apex," when leading banks involved in the IPO asked brokerage firms to gather preliminary investor interest. Mirae Asset believed it had submitted final orders, but Wall Street banks viewed these as non-binding indications. When the actual order submission phase opened in June, Mirae Asset had no recorded bids, resulting in no shares allocated.

The mishap marks a rare blemish on what was otherwise considered a smoothly managed and highly praised capital raise led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. Mirae Asset’s co-vice chairmen, Kim Mi-seop and Ha Sun-ho, issued a client apology on June 15, promising a thorough investigation and steps to restore investor trust.

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service has expanded its probe to examine how Mirae Asset failed to secure any shares despite investor demand. The market reacted sharply, with Mirae Asset’s stock plunging 18.2% since the SpaceX IPO, reflecting the damage to its reputation and investor confidence.

"We bow our heads and apologize for delivering such disappointing news to our clients," the company stated. Mirae Asset remains the only one among 23 South Korean investment firms to receive no allocation in the landmark SpaceX offering, underscoring the severe consequences of even routine communication errors in multi-billion-dollar financial deals.