15/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | DEC 15, 2025

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A SpaceX Super Heavy booster carrying the Starship spacecraft lifts off on its 11th test flight at the company’s launch pad in Starbase, Texas. – REUTERSPIC

Trump unsure whether impact of economic policies will be felt in time: WSJ WASHINGTON: American President Donald Trump expressed uncertainty about whether Republicans would keep control of the House of Repre sentatives in next year’s midterm elections because some of his economic policies have yet to take full effect, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Trump, in an interview conducted on last week, told the Journal: “I can’t tell you.” “I don’t know when all of this money is going to kick in,” the president said when asked about the whether Republicans would lose the House in November. The White House did not imme diately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The president has argued that his economic policies, including his imposition of widespread tariffs on imports, are creating jobs, boosting the stock market and attracting increased investment into the United States. After campaigning last year on promises to tame inflation, Trump has in recent weeks alternated between dismissing affordability problems as a hoax, blaming then president Joe Biden for them, and promising his economic policies will benefit Americans next year. “I think by the time we have to talk about the election, which is in another few months, I think our prices are in good shape,” Trump said in the interview. Last month the president rolled back tariffs on more than 200 food products in the face of growing angst among American consumers about the high cost of groceries. The president did not say whether he would lower tariffs on additional goods, the Wall Street Journal re ported. Trump’s overall approval rating edged up to 41% in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll but the approval rating on his performance on the cost of living was just 31%. Democrats have won a string of victories in state and local elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, where growing voter concerns about affordability, including high food prices, were a key topic. Officials have said the president will hit the road in the new year to campaign for Republican candidates and emphasise his economic policy successes. Trump has said his tax cuts and tariffs on foreign goods will put more money in the pockets of American families. – Reuters

SpaceX insider share sale sets US$800b valuation o Company preparing for possible IPO in 2026, CFO says

shareholders. A public listing would open SpaceX to a broader and more diverse pool of investors, including individual buyers, while giving existing shareholders an easier path to cash out and realise substantial capital gains. “This is a capital intensive business,” Matthew Kennedy of Renaissance Capital investment management firm said. “SpaceX has never had any difficulty raising funds in the private market, but public markets are undoubtedly larger. Liquidity is important as well, it can help with making acquisitions.” The influx of capital from an IPO will come at a price: going public will require SpaceX and Musk to maintain greater transparency, particularly about its revenues, and could increase pressure to deliver profits. “I speculate that would ground SpaceX somewhat in the near term,” said Mason Peck, an astronautical engineering professor at Cornell University. The company’s risk-taking approach of experimenting with unproven technologies and frequent prototype launches to learn from mistakes could be constrained by the expectations of new shareholders. “Will they become the same as any other aerospace company and ultimately mired in conservatism and legacy solutions?” Peck said. “That’s entirely possible. I hope it doesn’t happen.” – Agencies

SAN FRANCISCO: SpaceX is preparing to go public next year and has opened a secondary share sale that would value the company at US$800 billion (RM3.3 trillion), according to a letter to shareholders sent by the company’s CFO Bret Johnsen and reviewed by Reuters. The Elon Musk-led company’s move towards a public listing, which could rank among the largest global initial public offerings, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress in its Starship rocket programme for missions to the moon and Mars. In the letter dated Dec 12, Johnsen said SpaceX has approved an arrangement where new and existing investors and the company will buy up to US$2.56 billion of shares from eligible shareholders at US$421 a share. “We are preparing the company for a possible IPO in 2026. Whether it actually happens, when it happens, and at what valuation are still highly uncertain, but the thinking is that if we execute brilliantly and the markets cooperate, a public offering could raise a significant amount of capital.” SpaceX aims to use the capital to ramp Starship’s flight rate, deploy artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in space, build

Moonbase Alpha and send uncrewed and crewed missions to Mars, Johnsen said. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg News and The New York Times reported the share sale last Friday. Musk hinted at a possible SpaceX IPO in a post on social media platform X earlier last week. Reuters reported last Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the matter, the rocket and satellite company is looking to raise over US$25 billion in an IPO that could come as early as June. Investors have welcomed reports that SpaceX was mulling a potential IPO that would fund Musk’s Mars ambitions and value the rocket and satellite company at more than US$1 trillion. SpaceX ranks as the world’s second-most valuable private startup after ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to data from Crunchbase. Talks over a listing plan are unfolding against the backdrop of a resurgence in the IPO market in 2025 after a three-year dry spell. SpaceX is owned by Musk alongside several investment funds. Tech giant Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is also among the space company’s

Coca-Cola holds last-ditch talks in bid to salvage Costa Coffee sale: FT NEW YORK: American soft drinks giant Coca-Cola’s proposed sale of Costa Coffee is at risk of collapsing, with the company holding last-ditch talks last weekend with private equity firm TDR Capital in an effort to salvage the deal, the Financial Times newspaperreported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. TDR was selected as Coca-Cola’s preferred bidder earlier last week, but talks have stumbled over the price, the report said, adding that the deal includes the soft drinks giant retaining a minority stake in the British coffee chain. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. TDR declined to comment while Coca Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In August, Coca-Cola was said to be working with investment bank Lazard to review options, including a potential sale, of

Costa, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Lazard also did not respond to a request for comment. In 2018, Britain’s Whitbread Plc sold Costa to Coca-Cola for an enterprise value of US$5.1 billion. – Reuters