Bankers lined up for SpaceX IPO

SpaceX has reportedly appointed a group of 21 banks to handle its upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The lead bookrunner banks are reported by Bloomberg to include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup. The other unnamed banks will include national banks for what the project which has the code name 'Project Apex'.

The rumour mill - at the moment wholly unofficial - suggests that the cash-raising exercise will value SpaceX at some $1.75 trillion, and in the process make SpaceX the most valuable IPO in history.

Sources suggest that the lead bookrunner banks are meeting on April 6 to plan their strategy for the IPO which is likely to happen in June.

There is one early winner in the scheme, which is EchoStar which can potentially receive up to $11 billion as part of the spectrum purchase made by SpaceX last year (and has yet to be approved by the FCC). March 31st saw EchoStar's share price rise 4.3 per cent to $117.