Triller Group Inc (NASDAQ:ILLR), a Nasdaq microcap with roughly $2 million of cash, announced Thursday it is acquiring $411 million of exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) as a strategic treasury asset.
That sent its stock up nearly 400% intraday.
Triller said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire economic exposure to 3,917,185 SpaceX shares through a fund vehicle.
CEO Wing-Fai Ng called the deal a “transformational step” that places SpaceX at the heart of the company’s balance sheet.
A $411 Million Position On A $13 Million Market Cap
Before the announcement, Triller’s market capitalization sat at roughly $13 million, according to public filings.
The company reported $2 million in cash, trailing-twelve-month revenue of $21.6 million, and a net loss of $174.5 million.
Triller is not buying SpaceX shares directly. The deal is routed through a chain of offshore vehicles that ultimately hold the underlying shares, a structure that sidesteps the standard post-IPO lockup.
Triller is paying $105 per Share Equivalent, a roughly 32% discount to SPCX’s recent close near $154.
The 68% Loan-To-Value Margin Trap
The “secured financing arrangement” carries significant risk.
Triller is borrowing $411 million against a position worth roughly $603 million at current SPCX prices, a loan-to-value ratio of about 68%.
For a locked-up, newly public stock that just retraced 35% from its high, that level of leverage is aggressive.
With only $2 million in cash, Triller has effectively no dry powder to meet a margin call. A further 15% to 20% drop in SPCX could allow the lender to seize the underlying shares.
Polymarket traders, however, see that scenario as unlikely in the near term. They estimate there is only a 2% chance SpaceX falls below a $1.5 trillion market cap this month. The odds of SpaceX being the most valuable company in the world this year are at 4%.
‘Renting’ The Shares
Bloomberg Opinion columnist Matt Levine raised structural concerns Thursday, noting Triller is effectively borrowing the full purchase price against the SpaceX position.
Levine suggested the lender likely captures most of the upside, framing the structure as “renting” the shares rather than buying them.
The treasury-company playbook popularized by Strategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR) has cooled, with MSTR now in a death spiral, according to longtime Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff.
The Triller deal arrives two weeks after a 1-for-10 reverse stock split to maintain Nasdaq compliance, following a four-month trading suspension that ended in April.
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