According to the Nikkei newspaper on Tuesday, MUFG Bank is one of three Japanese companies supporting a $290 million fundraising effort for the American spacecraft business Sierra Space and a project to build a commercial “spaceport” in Oita’s southwest.
Despite recent failures for government space missions, Japanese space ventures are strengthening their partnerships with private businesses, from American behemoths like SpaceX to domestic startups.
MUFG Bank, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire, and trading house Kanematsu spent tens of billions of yen in Sierra, obtaining ownership of the unlisted business that was now likely worth more than $5 billion, according to the newspaper.
A representative from Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire, a division of Tokio Marine Holdings (8766.T), acknowledged that the three businesses partnered with Sierra but would not go into further detail about their investments.
Kanematsu Corp. (8020.T) and MUFG Bank, owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T), declined to comment.
According to CNBC, in addition to the Japanese companies, the purchase also involved “significant participation from prior investors and insiders” of Sierra.
One of a few space industry firms working to create a commercial space station that NASA believes will replace the International Space Station by 2030 is Sierra Space, which was split off from the billionaire-owned Sierra Nevada Corp in 20221.
To create Asia’s first “horizontal spaceport,” Sierra partnered with Kanematsu, Japan Airlines (9201.T), and the Oita prefectural government in December.
This year, the bankruptcy of another American space business, Virgin Orbit, which had cooperated with airline ANA Holdings (9202.T), hurt the Oita project.
One of the three largest banks in Japan, MUFG Bank, has invested in domestic space businesses like Astroscale, a company that removes orbital junk.
The moon landing project of Ispace Inc. (9348.T), which failed in April, was covered by the first “lunar insurance” ever offered, according to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, a rival of Tokio Marine.
Contrasted with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) failing space flights since last year are the robust private ventures.
However, if the early 2024 voyage to the moon is successful, Japan will become the fifth country in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon with its SLIM lander.
