Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Only Now.. Profitable Space Industry Opened for Investors


Mon 22 Apr 2019 | 11:57 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

For those who wish to catch up with the growing but also profitable space industry.. Here's the way! A debut of ‘UFO’ ETF (special stock index) gives investors another way to invest in the  $400 billion space industry.

The flood of young companies into the growing industry is sparking investor interest but there’s a common issue: A lack of public U.S. companies that generate the majority of revenue from space business.

“The space industry is one that is still fairly new as far as corporations and the commercial viability of companies in space go,” Andrew Chanin, co-founder and CEO of ProcureAM, an exchange-traded product issuer.

According to CNBC, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic and others are some of the too most talked about names among these space companies. But those companies are not available to the majority of investors.

“Although there might be private companies that are working on new technologies, it’s really difficult to get access unless you’re an extremely affluent investor,” Chanin said.

That’s why Chanin partnered with Space Investment Services, run by former Space Foundation director of research Micah Walter-Range, to develop the Procure Space ETF, ticker UFO.

The exchange-traded fund of 30 companies gives everyday investors a way to own a stake in the growing space economy. UFO also focuses as much as possible on “pure play” space companies, Chanin said, as roughly 80% derive the majority of revenue from space businesses.

“UFO provides, compared to other types of investment vehicles, a relatively low cost and persified away to invest in this specific theme,” Chanin said.

"UFO is not limited to U.S. companies," Chanin noted. He said he believes that investors need to “access this industry by investing in global companies,” so UFO “opens up the universe, pun intended, of companies that can be included.” The ETF includes everything from satellite communications companies – such as Iridium, Inmarsat, SES – to industrial manufacturers – Harris, Airbus – and more.

The emphasis on largely “pure play” companies is key and Chanin touted UFO as having an advantage in that regard. Large aerospace and defense companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin have space businesses generating billions of dollars but are a small piece of the contractors’ overall pies.

"The index is also now the official benchmark of the space industry by the Space Foundation,” Chanin said. The Space Foundation is a nonprofit organization, which also hosts one of the world’s most widely attended space conferences in Colorado. UFO’s index is also the first ever “Space Foundation certified space data product,” Chanin added.