Mirae threatens legal action against Bloomberg as SpaceX share snub mystery deepens
The spat over an unflattering report comes as Mirae comes under fire for receiving no allocation of SpaceX shares, even after the brokerage had accepted investor deposits.
The Mirae Asset Securities headquarters in central Seoul on June 15. The financial watchdog last month launched a probe into the brokerage's zero allocation of SpaceX's initial public offering even after it received deposits from investors.
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The mystery surrounding Mirae Asset Securities' failure to secure any SpaceX shares escalated after the brokerage disputed a Bloomberg report alleging it missed out on the allocation due to a misunderstanding about how orders were to be submitted.
Bloomberg on Thursday reported that Mirae Asset Securities strongly denied its earlier report, citing people familiar with the situation, which claimed the brokerage had inadvertently treated an early request indicating investor interest as the point at which it had submitted binding orders.
"We cannot overlook an article that defames our company by citing unidentified sources to claim that our order was not submitted due to a communication error on our part," the company responded to the initial report. "We will hold the Bloomberg reporter legally accountable for publishing a one-sided report containing unverified and malicious claims that have seriously damaged our reputation and shareholder value, without properly verifying the facts."
The saga comes amid the unexpected zero allocation of SpaceX shares to Mirae, even after the brokerage had accepted investor deposits. It has also reignited concerns over potentially exaggerated or misleading advertising and aggressive marketing practices across the financial industry.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) launched an on-site inspection of Mirae Asset Securities last month to determine whether individual and corporate investors eligible to participate in the SpaceX offering were registered as professional investors. Under the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers, professional investors are exempt from certain investor protection requirements, and the FSS sought to determine whether the associated risks had been adequately disclosed.
The inspection is expected to continue through early this month, although the timeline could be extended. Mirae’s failure to secure any allocation was described as “difficult to understand” by the FSS chief Lee Chan-jin.
Mirae was the sole Korean member of the underwriting syndicate and is an affiliate of early SpaceX investor Mirae Asset Venture Investment. It was expected to be allocated 2.31 million of the 555.6 million Class A shares offered in the IPO, according to the SpaceX prospectus.
SpaceX, which went public on the Nasdaq on June 12, raised more than $85 billion from investors. After being initially offered to investors at $135, the price rose as high as $225 but has since fallen to close at $157 on Wednesday.
BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]
