Al Root
It keeps getting worse for holders of common stock in the space-launch start-up Virgin Orbit. They shouldn't expect much improvement from here.
Monday evening, the company said the Nasdaq Stock Market planned to delist its shares. Stock trading is due to be suspended on Thursday. The company is appealing the delisting decision, but the process won't affect this week's suspension.
It is harder to trade stock that isn't listed on a major exchange. Virgin Orbit stock (ticker: VORB) was down 22% in premarket trading at 13 cents. S&P 500 futures were flat and those on the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%.
The news follows a string of negative reports from the company. It said on April 4 that it was going to file for bankruptcy, while in mid-March, the company paused operations while looking for additional capital. In February, a Virgin Orbit mission failed to reach orbit after experiencing problems. A January mission also failed to reach orbit.
Before the February mission, the stock was at $1.61 a share, down a touch from $1.69 before the January mission. But a year ago, shares were at about $6.40.
The company listed about $243 million in assets in its third-quarter financial filings, the most recent available. Liabilities and shareholder equity were about $153 million and $89 million respectively.
In most bankruptcy filings, common shareholders are wiped out completely.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2023 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT)
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