Virgin Galactic loses altitude as Branson dumps US$300mln stake

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) saw its shares descend on Friday after its billionaire founder Richard Branson offloaded another large portion of his stake in the space tourism company. According to an SEC filing, Branson’s Virgin Investments Limited sold around 10.4mln shares in the group over the last week, worth a total of US$300mln. READ: Virgin Galactic starts selling tickets to space as losses continue The sale also means that Branson has so far recouped around US$950mln of his investment in Virgin Galactic since the firm listed in October 2019. Branson has also previously sold large amounts of shares in the firm since then, netting over US$504mln from a sale in May 2020 and US$150mln from another in April this year. However, news of the most recent sale sent the stock down 2.9% to US$25.19 in mid-morning trading in New York.