South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service is expanding its investigation into Mirae Asset Securities following the firm’s complete failure to secure shares in the SpaceX public offering.
The probe focuses on a critical question: did Mirae adequately disclose to its clients the risk of receiving zero allocations?
Securities and Exchange Commission filings show Mirae committed to purchasing 2,314,815 shares at $135 each, a position valued at approximately $312.5 million. Goldman Sachs, the lead underwriter, allocated none of those shares to the Korean firm. Every deposit was refunded.
SpaceX’s IPO raised $75 billion, the largest public offering in history. Shares surged 19% on the first trading day, closing at $161 and pushing the market capitalization above $2.1 trillion. Korean investors locked out of the initial pricing were forced into the secondary market at a significant premium.
Mirae had pursued a dedicated Korean tranche targeting between $1 billion and $5 billion. A separate $500 million local offering reportedly sold out in minutes. The intense global institutional demand squeezed out smaller distribution partners entirely.
Regulators are not alleging fraud. They are instead examining the adequacy of risk disclosures surrounding the opaque allocation process, where lead underwriters exercise broad discretion and SEC filing commitments do not guarantee final delivery.