Lucid Motors to go public in SPAC deal
February 23, 2021
Electric-vehicle maker Lucid Motors has agreed to go public by merging with a blank-check company backed by former Citigroup executive Michael Klein.
- The deal with Churchill Capital Corp. IV is worth $11.75 billion and comes after stock-market investors pushed up the SPAC's shares last month amid speculation Churchill was targeting Lucid for a merger.
- Lucid will net some $4.4 billion in cash from the transaction; the deal includes $2.1 billion from the blank-check company and a $2.5 billion PIPE investment—the largest of its kind in a SPAC deal—the companies said.
- The PIPE would give the combined company an implied value of $24 billion.
- Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger Berman, Wellington Management and Winslow Capital Management funded the PIPE.
- The Saudi fund invested over $1 billion in Lucid in 2019. Before that, the EV maker received funding from investors including China's state-owned holding company BAIC Motor and Tsing Capital.