Chamath Palihapitiya, the chairman of Virgin Galactic who took the company public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal in 2019, sold his remaining personal stake this week. Shares of Virgin Galactic dropped 9.9 percent in Friday’s trading.

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Earlier, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Palihapitiya had sold about 6.2 million Virgin Galactic shares. He still indirectly owns about 15.8 million shares through Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings — the SPAC that he had formed.

In a statement to CNBC, Palihapitiya said he planned to redirect the sale into an investment he’s making towards fighting climate change. He has reportedly also approached potential investors in an effort to raise billions of dollars for partnering with a few technology giants to take the climate initiative forward.

He also added that he would make details of the investment public in a few months. "I remain as dedicated as ever to Virgin Galactic’s team, mission and prospects," Palihapitiya said in the statement to CNBC.

In December, Palihapitiya had sold 3.8 million shares of his stake in Virgin Galactic. Then he had told that he sold the shares to manage his liquidity as he’s on his way to funding many new projects in 2021.

Palihapitiya’s SPAC merged with Virgin Galactic in 2019. That allowed the space tourism company to go public with a $2.3 billion market capitalisation. Palihapitiya has been one of the most productive sponsors of SPACs, merging them with a range of companies.

This year, in January he announced his intention to take online lender Social Finance public via a SPAC. As he unveiled the $8.7 billion deal to the public on CNBC and Twitter, about 65 million shares of the SPAC that he had formed, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, changed hands that day.

A former Facebook executive, he now has 1.4 million followers on Twitter.

(Edited by : Jomy)

First Published:Mar 6, 2021 7:43 PM IST