* SpaceX IPO could re-energise UK and European retail

investing

* Platforms like Revolut, Hargreaves Lansdown, eToro

offer access to retail investors

* SpaceX may allocate up to 30% of IPO to European retail

investors, sources say

By Lucy Raitano, Iain Withers and Elizabeth Howcroft

LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - European retail investors are

among those jockeying for a piece of the hotly anticipated

SpaceX initial public offering, but some observers warn

the deal could prove a bumpy ride for those without the

resources that institutional investors have behind them.

SpaceX is considering allocating as much as 30% of the deal to

individual investors - an unusually large retail tranche - with

offerings planned in the UK, Germany, Denmark, France, the

Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

In Britain, eight online investing platforms have begun

inviting UK customers to apply for shares in the $75 billion

raise, seen by some as the most significant retail offering in

the country since the flotation of then state-owned Royal Mail

in 2013, and a chance to re-energise a lacklustre investing

culture.

"The retail interest here is unlike any other deal,

investors want to be part of the dream," said Ygal El Harrar,

BNP Paribas' global head of equity capital markets, technology.

European IPO issuance has slumped since 2021 and the

proportion of household assets held in financial securities is

just 17%, according to the European Union, a figure dwarfed by

the 43% in the United States.

Three academics and one consumer rights advocate advised

caution due to the lofty $1.75 trillion valuation of the

loss-making SpaceX, while the small float size of less than 5%

and a lack of voting rights could pose risks.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Its founder and

leader Elon Musk said on Thursday that he felt "pretty good"

about the company's revenue projections and that revenue had

become "much more predictable".

LIFT OFF

Opinion on investment forums and platforms like Reddit is

mixed, with some enthusiastic and others put off by the high

valuation or Musk's leadership.

Hargreaves Lansdown said 35,000 of its clients had

registered an interest in IPO alerts since SpaceX's offer was

first rumoured in April.

Revolut's dedicated webpage for the share sale in Britain

aimed at signing up new customers features a full-page video of

a SpaceX rocket lifting off before outlining risks including

that applicants may not receive any shares at all.

Meziane Lasfer, Professor of Finance at Bayes Business

School in London, said that while institutional investors have

databases and financial analysts to help them determine the true

value of a company, retail investors would be taking a "very big

risk".

"It is a company that is making huge losses and at the price

it's coming to market, it's at 100 times price to sales, which

is extremely high...Normally about twice to three times is very

good."

The CEO of JPMorgan, one of the ‌vast ⁠syndicate of banks

working on the IPO, said it was looking to treat "individual

investors ​the same way institutions are treated".

SETTING A PRECEDENT

UK-based Marex Financial is operating a public offer

platform where the eight retail platforms - also including AJ

Bell, CMC Markets, eToro, Freetrade, Interactive Brokers and

interactive investor - can send prospective investors' orders.

Mike Coombes, chief operating officer of British retail

investment platform PrimaryBid, said this new approach could set

a precedent for other foreign firms targeting UK buyers.

An executive at one of the retail platforms involved said it

was encouraging that everyday investors were getting early

access to an IPO rather than only being able to buy shares in

the secondary market.

eToro said in a press release that the minimum application

on its platform was $750, while Hargreaves Lansdown is asking

for £1,000 ($1,334).

BNP Paribas' El Harrar said that retail participation in

IPOs is a new obsession for technology companies that have

shifted from maybe having at most 15% of their order book placed

with such investors, to double that.

While there has been a regulatory push in the UK to make it

easier for retail investors to buy into IPOs, there has been a

dearth of deals to choose from amid a global slowdown in new

listings.

Of the 15 largest UK IPOs in 2021, only one included a retail

tranche, according to Coombes. That was Deliveroo, which offered

retail investors a 50 million pound slice of its £1.5 billion

IPO via PrimaryBid. The stock plunged as much as 30% on its

first day of trading.

($1 = 0.7494 pounds)