Days before SpaceX's record-breaking IPO, Mirae Asset Securities, Korea's largest brokerage, saw zero shares allocated in the system — a stunning failure that cost it a place as one of the 23 underwriters. Instead of riding the rocket, the firm sent apology messages to thousands of clients and faces an investigation by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
"Project Apex": A Misread Email That Sealed the Loss
According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, the trouble began during the pre-deal phase code-named "Project Apex." In mid-May, before formal bookbuilding started, lead underwriters Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup sent an email to the 23 underwriters asking them to report preliminary demand indications in a virtual data room. This is standard procedure — a signal-gathering step, not the final order submission.
Mirae Asset mistakenly treated that email as the formal order placement, Bloomberg's sources said. The actual formal orders were due only after a second invitation email in June — the real industry milestone. In the eyes of Wall Street banks, Mirae Asset had submitted zero retail orders. Hence, zero shares.
$1.14 Billion in Orders Lost in the System
This miscommunication was the critical link in a chain of misunderstandings. Mirae Asset had already done the groundwork: in April it confirmed SpaceX would not open directly to Korean retail investors (partly due to regulatory issues) and pivoted to soliciting orders from institutions and high-net-worth clients via a private placement. On May 20, SpaceX filed with the SEC showing that the Korean market would participate via private placement — a green light, Seoul thought. Mirae Asset collected about $1.14 billion in subscriptions from Korean clients.
When staff logged into a lead underwriter's system to check allocations, they found a big zero. "Completely unexpected," one person said. The $1.14 billion orders never entered the formal system.
Other Korean Investors Got Shares, Raising Red Flags
Other South Korean investors fared well. Korea's National Pension Service (assets over $1 trillion) and Mirae Asset Global Investments — a sister company — both secured allocations through the lead underwriters. The disparity drew sharp words from FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin. On June 22, he told media it was "still difficult to understand" why Mirae Asset came back empty-handed, adding that he expected Korean professional investors to "of course" receive allotments.
The FSS initially looked into investor eligibility and later expanded to examine Mirae's failure. No results have been published, but penalties may follow. Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Mirae Asset all declined to comment. The Korean government, FSS, and SpaceX did not respond.
Apology and a Wound That Won't Heal Easily
On June 15, Mirae Asset Vice Chairmen Kim Mi-seop and Heo Seon-ho sent a message to clients: "We sincerely apologize for delivering such heavy news to clients who had high hopes for the SpaceX IPO subscription." The firm promised to review its procedures and work on restoring trust. Ironically, Mirae Asset was an early investor in SpaceX and one of the few non-U.S. underwriters. It didn't lose out due to capital weakness or competition — it stumbled on the most basic IPO communication process.