By Tatiana Bautzer and Nupur Anand
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s investment banking giants are feting investors at splashy investor events that kicked off on Thursday, giving hopeful SpaceX buyers something most banks can’t: access to the rocketmaker’s top executives ahead of its blockbuster IPO next week.
Elon Musk’s futuristic IPO, which bases its lofty valuation on sci-fi concepts like colonizing Mars and data centers in space, has captured the imagination – and wallets – of Wall Street and investors clamoring for a piece of the action. Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are all hosting events over the next few days.
With plans to raise a record $75 billion, it would be the largest of all time. At an expected $1.75 trillion market capitalization, the company will immediately become one of the most valuable listed names worldwide.
Bank of America, which is leading the retail distribution effort in the U.S., decked out the lobby at its midtown Manhattan headquarters with SpaceX rockets and other images for an event Thursday for wealth management clients, a person familiar with the matter said.
The event will be headed by Co-President Jim DeMare, who will interview SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnsen about the company’s public trading debut, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. It was not clear if Musk would participate in any way. The bank also plans to light the building’s spire Thursday night to resemble a rocket ship taking off.
MAKING THE ROUNDS
Shotwell and Johnsen are also making the rounds at JPMorgan’s recently opened, bronze-toned headquarters just a 15-minute walk away, where CEO Jamie Dimon is headlining a similar event, also on Thursday. More than 2,500 clients are expected to attend in what will be the first such event for the bank at this scale.
JPMorgan also played a video of a SpaceX rocket launch on Thursday on repeat across wide screens at its headquarters along with the words “Go for Launch” projected several feet high across the lobby.
Bank of America’s private bank and Merrill Lynch have invited more than 5,000 clients to market launch parties being hosted by the bank and streamed to offices across the U.S. as part of the Merrill presence.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley is hosting an event for its wealth management clients featuring SpaceX executives along with Kate Claassen, the lead banker in the IPO, and wealth management head Jed Finn.
It was not clear if Goldman Sachs was organizing an event similar to its well-heeled rivals for its wealth management clients. The bank is also showcasing SpaceX model rockets in two lobbies in its downtown Manhattan headquarters to mark the stock debut.
Typically, Goldman Sachs does offer large deals to its private wealth clients, according to people familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Nupur Anand, Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar and Akash Sriram; Editing by Megan Davies, Dawn Kopecki, Andrea Ricci and David Gaffen)
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