Newly issued stock from Amazon- and GE-backed electric-plane maker rises in its first day of trading

By Steve Gelsi

Shares of Beta Technologies end their trading debut up $2 above their $34-a-share IPO price

Beta Technologies makes the Alia CTOL electric plane.

Beta Technologies Inc.'s stock rose from its initial-public-offering price in its first day as a public company Tuesday, after earlier indications of strong investor interest in the electric-plane maker that has won backing from Amazon.com, GE Aerospace and other deep-pocketed investors.

At the closing bell, the electric conventional takeoff-and-landing (eCTOL) company's stock (BETA) ended its first day of trading at $36 a share, up 6% over its IPO price of $34 a share. The stock opened at $33.95 a share and hit a low of $30.85 a share and a high of $38.33 a share during the session.

The stock's debut came amid a choppy day for stocks, as investors questioned high tech valuations and Treasury yields rose to three-week highs.

The IPO from Beta Technologies priced overnight at $34 a share, above its estimated range of $27 to $33 a share. And even at the higher price, the company sold 29.85 million shares in the IPO, which was 4.85 million more than it had expected to sell, to raise $1.01 billion.

Beta Technologies is backed by well-known investors including GE Aerospace (GE) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and has partners including United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and the U.S. military.

With 218.9 million shares outstanding, the IPO pricing at $34 gave the company a market capitalization of $7.44 billion. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were lead underwriters of the IPO.

While strong pricing and an upsized offering would indicate strong investor demand when a stock starts trading, there's always a question of how long the IPO hype can last.

For example, when electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing company Joby Aviation Inc. (JOBY) went public after the Aug. 10, 2021 close, the stock soared 33.6% the next day to close at $13.40, but then closed a year later at $6.16. Demand picked up again and it closed at a record $20.39 on Aug. 4 of this year, before paring gains since then.

Also in the eVTOL business, Archer Aviation Inc.'s stock (ACHR) closed its first day of trading at $9.48 on Sept. 17, 2021, then closed a year later at $3. More recently, it closed at a fresh high of $13.64 on Oct. 6, before pulling back.

Meanwhile, Beta Technologies' IPO comes after GE Aerospace purchased $300 million in equity in September, placed one of its executives on Beta's board of directors and announced agreements to develop turbogenerators and propulsion technologies for hybrid-electric applications with the company.

Amazon is an investor in the company through its Climate Pledge Fund, as is FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, and TPG Growth LLC, which is managed by private-equity firm TPG Inc. (TPG), according to filings. John E. Abele, the co-founder of Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), is on Beta's board of directors.

UPS, United Therapeutics Corp. (UTHR) and the U.S. military were listed by the company as partners for the Alia CTOL aircraft.

Founded in 2018 by test pilot Kyle Clark, Vermont-based Beta Technologies has not yet delivered any certified aircraft and has not recognized any revenue from the plane, but it reported a backlog 158 firm orders and 402 optional orders. The company's goal is to gain certification for the plane by early 2028.

It's testing its electric aircraft for commercial feasibility and Federal Aviation Administration certification. It's also developing the Alia VTOL (A250) vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.

Beta Technologies reported a loss of $183.2 million on revenue of $15.6 million in the six months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $137.1 million and revenue of $7.6 million in the year-prior period.

Beta Technologies is the ninth $1 billion-plus IPO out of 184 operating companies to go public in 2025, according to data from Renaissance Capital, manager of the Renaissance Capital IPO ETF IPO.

The most recent $1 billion-plus IPO prior to Beta Technologies was buy-now-pay-later company Klarna Group PLC (KLAR), which raised $1.37 billion on Sept. 9, preceded by the $1.1 billion IPO from digital-asset exchange Bullish (BLSH) on Aug. 12.

-Steve Gelsi

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11-04-25 1622ET