SpaceX and Anthropic Power Scottish Mortgage Back to Premium Issuance — and Heighten Concentration Debate
05.06.2026 - 16:58:46 | boerse-global.de
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has pulled off an abrupt about-face in capital strategy, issuing 3.85 million new shares at a premium to net asset value on 2 June — a stark contrast to the £1.31 billion buyback programme it ran last year to prop up its stock price. The issuance at 1,545.42p a share signals that investor demand has returned, fuelled by two high-profile IPO catalysts brewing in the portfolio: SpaceX and Anthropic.
The trust’s largest holding, SpaceX, now accounts for 21.0% of the total portfolio, up from 17.9% at the end of April. Following confirmation of a $135 per share IPO price for the rocket company — which targets a $1.76–1.78 trillion valuation at listing on 12 June — Scottish Mortgage lifted its internal valuation, pushing the net asset value to 1,493.98p at the close on 3 June. The absolute SpaceX stake is worth roughly £3.5 billion. Co-manager Tom Slater acknowledged in the recent annual report that such concentration creates volatility, but the Baillie Gifford vehicle remains committed to the position.
Yet the stock has not mirrored the NAV uplift. Shares fell 2.51% on Friday to €17.45 and have dropped about 10.5% from their 52-week high of €19.50 set on 25 May. Over the past twelve months, however, the stock is still up more than 25%. Market participants appear nervous about the rising dependence on a single event — the SpaceX listing — which magnifies both upside and downside risk for the trust.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Scottish Mortgage Investment?
The private-company exposure, meanwhile, has surged to 41.3% of the portfolio, well above the historical 30% ceiling that Scottish Mortgage had long observed. Shareholders granted the board approval in the spring to invest up to an additional ÂŁ250 million in unlisted firms even if that means breaching the self-imposed limit. The closed-end structure allows the trust to hold those positions through the IPO process without being forced to sell at the time of listing.
Attention is already shifting to the next catalyst. Scottish Mortgage holds a 2.6% stake in Anthropic, the AI developer that has filed for its own IPO. News of that filing pushed the trust’s stock to a new all-time high of 1,544 pence — above the previous record of 1,544 pence set in 2021 (note: the article says 15.44 pounds, I'll use pence: 1,544p). Should Anthropic successfully list, the NAV could receive another boost, sharpening the concentration debate further.
Slater credited SpaceX with making a material contribution to the trust’s 27.4% total return in the latest fiscal year. The printed annual report is due in early April, and the annual general meeting in Edinburgh on 2 July is expected to draw intense questioning from investors about the ballooning private stake and the timeline for further IPO monetisations. For now, Scottish Mortgage has flipped from buyer to seller of its own shares — a rare sign of confidence that the premium can hold.
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