Sydney-based Pengana Investment Management has revealed that SpaceX's blockbuster Nasdaq debut has triggered an estimated 18 per cent uplift in the net asset value of the Pengana Private Equity Trust (ASX: PE1), with the rocket and satellite company's holding contributing about US$55 million ($79 million) in net value above the trust's valuation at the end of May.
The update, disclosed to the ASX today, translates to an implied net asset value (NAV) per unit increase of 29c, calculated at an AUD/USD exchange rate of US70c.
SpaceX closed at US$191.82 in the US overnight, well above its IPO price of US$135, after the Elon Musk-founded company listed on Nasdaq last week and surged 19 per cent on its first day of trading to close at US$160.95.
The IPO valued SpaceX at US$1.77 trillion, with the market capitalisation reaching US$2.2 trillion in after-hours trading on day one.
Pengana Private Equity Trust first invested in SpaceX in late 2020 when the company was valued at US$50 billion, initially allocating a 2 per cent portfolio stake.
By March this year, that position had swelled to about 14 per cent of the trust's private markets exposure as SpaceX's pre-IPO valuation ballooned.
Pengana cautions that the estimated NAV uplift is an intra-month calculation and remains subject to final fee, foreign exchange and valuation adjustments when the 30 June 2026 NAV is formally struck.
The trust's most recently disclosed formal NAV per unit was $1.562 as at 31 January 2026, down from $1.756 at 31 December 2025.
SpaceX generated US$18.7 billion in revenue in 2025 but posted a loss of US$4.9 billion, according to its IPO filings.
The company's lofty valuation has divided market observers.
CFRA Research senior analyst Keith Snyder has assigned SpaceX a sell rating with a US$115 price target upon listing, calling the valuation "borderline comical", while Altimeter's Brad Gerstner struck a bullish tone, describing SpaceX as a future "largest AI hyperscaler in the United States".
Pengana is among a host of Australian companies taking the plunge on SpaceX, including Gina Rinehart's mining group Hancock Prospecting which is reported to have been allocated a stake worth worth more than $US1 billion.
Melbourne-based corporate advisory and private equity firm Boman Group this week also confirmed it was an investor in SpaceX ahead of the IPO.
Eva Zhuang, the partner responsible for Boman Group's Unicorn strategy, says the firm's conviction rests on both commercial fundamentals and a longer-term view of space as critical infrastructure.
"Our thesis on SpaceX was never that of a rocket company," says Zhuang.
"We saw a business that had moved through three phases: solving reusable launch, which permanently changed the economics of getting to space; converting that breakthrough into Starlink, a cash-flow-generating global infrastructure business; and now sitting at the intersection of launch capability, an orbital network and artificial intelligence.
"Very few companies on earth have demonstrated that progression at scale."
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