Published by maria gbaf
Posted on August 17, 2021
1 min readLast updated: February 16, 2026
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(Reuters) -Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc fell nearly 3% on Friday after its founder and British billionaire Richard Branson sold a portion of his stake for nearly $300 million.
Branson sold more than 10 million shares between Aug. 10 and 12, according to a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/3jPMEFE from late Thursday.
The move comes a month after the space tourism company completed its first fully crewed test flight into space with Branson on board.
The money from the share sale will be used to support the pandemic-struck leisure and travel businesses of Branson’s Virgin Group, as well as to develop new businesses, a spokesperson for the British conglomerate said.
The latest sale leaves Branson with about 46.3 million shares worth roughly $1.2 billion as of stock’s last closing price. He had in April sold stock worth over $150 million.
Branson’s Virgin Investments is the largest shareholder of the space tourism company and has a stake of about 22% as of June, according to Refinitiv data.
The company’s shares were last down at $25.18 on Friday.
(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Richard Branson sold a portion of his stake in Virgin Galactic for nearly $300 million.
The money from the sale will support Branson's pandemic-struck leisure and travel businesses and help develop new ventures.
After the sale, Branson retains about 46.3 million shares, valued at roughly $1.2 billion.
As of June, Branson's Virgin Investments holds about 22% of Virgin Galactic.
Following the share sale, Virgin Galactic's shares were last down at $25.18.
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