Lucid Motors, a US-based luxury electric vehicle provider backed by diversified conglomerate Mitsui, agreed yesterday to execute a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp IV.
The deal will involve a combined equity value of almost $11.8bn and it will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, following Churchill’s flotation in a $1.8bn initial public offering in July 2020.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is anchoring a $2.5bn private investment in public equity financing for the company at an initial pro-forma equity valuation of approximately $24bn.
The PIPE includes investment and financial services group Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger Berman, Wellington Management, Winslow Capital Management and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
Lucid has been developing a luxury sedan called the Lucid Air that is slated for later this year, and expects to launch a luxury sports utility vehicle dubbed the Gravity in 2023. In addition to its own vehicles, it also plans to offer its technology to third parties.
The proceeds from the deal will fund the expansion of a production facility in the state of Arizona that is currently in the pre-production stage for Lucid Air, as it moves towards being capable of manufacturing 365,000 vehicles a year.
PIF had agreed in 2018 to invest up to $1bn in the company, two years after Reuters reported it had raised a total of “several hundred million dollars” in funding. That amount included $100m from an undisclosed investor in 2014, according to a regulatory filing.
Mitsui had joined existing backers Venrock and Tsing Capital to invest $24m in Lucid – then known as Atieva – in 2011. China Environment Fund III, a vehicle managed by Tsing Capital and Venrock, had supplied $7m for the company in 2009.
Photo courtesy of Lucid Motors.
