Musk’s longtime backer gives SpaceX stock to investors

Valor Equity Partners is distributing part of its SpaceX stock to its limited partner investors instead of selling the shares for cash, according to an SEC filing reported by Bloomberg.

Valor was founded by Antonio Gracias, a longtime Elon Musk backer who is also a current SpaceX board member. Entities controlled by Gracias owned more than 500 million SpaceX shares at the time of the IPO, second only to Musk, who owned more than 6 billion shares, according to the filing.

Rather than cashing out and returning money to its investors, Valor transferred 8.5% of its SpaceX holdings to them. Bloomberg estimates that the shares are worth about $8.5 billion. The SEC disclosure says Valor will still own more than 460 million shares after the transfer.

Moving the shares directly to limited partners could provide a tax advantage, the report says. It also avoids putting a large block of shares on the open market, which could create an excess supply and put pressure on the price. SpaceX is already down about 10% since its IPO day.