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Investor Chamath Palihapitiya confirms selling shares in Virgin Galactic – Metro US

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya confirms selling shares in Virgin Galactic

FILE PHOTO: Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO of Social Capital,
FILE PHOTO: Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO of Social Capital, presents during the 2018 Sohn Investment Conference in New York

(Reuters) – Venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya on Saturday confirmed in a tweet that he has freed up some capital by selling shares in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, for investing at scale without impacting his pace and strategic view.

“I hated to do it but my balance sheet shrank by almost $2B this week,” he mentioned in the tweet https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1368247776216117248 thread, adding a sad emoji.

In the long tweet thread, mentioning about reviewing and remodeling of everything he invested in, Palihapitiya also clarified that he did not sell any shares of any other SPAC he launched.

A regulatory filing showed Palihapitiya sold 6.2 million shares in the space tourism company he helped take public in 2019, for around $213 million.

In an emailed statement through a spokesman on Friday, Palihapitiya said he would redirect the funds from the share sale toward a “large investment” focused on the fight against climate change.

Virgin Galactic did not immediately respond to request for comment.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)