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- Churchill Capital Corp IV’s shares jumped about 20% on Monday amid continued optimism for a merger with EV Lucid Motors.
- Lucid is in talks with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to create an EV plant in the country.
- The EV manufacturer also recently completed the construction of a 590-acre production facility in Arizona.
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Churchill Capital Corp IV shares soared another 20% on Monday amid continued optimism about a possible merger with Lucid Motors.
News of the possible merger of Michael Klein’s SPAC with EV maker Lucid to go public has caused the company’s blank check to jump about 167% in less than three weeks.
Still, Churchill Capital IV refused to confirm or deny the reports.
“We generally don’t comment on rumors and speculation and we won’t comment on whether or not the company is looking for a specific business opportunity, unless we say, as noted, that we are always evaluating a number of potential business combinations,” wrote the company in a statement. statement on January 19.
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Despite the lack of certainty surrounding the merger, hopes for an acquisition of Lucid are pushing Churchill Capital Corp IV’s shares up. And with The Financial Times that the EV maker is in talks with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to build an electric vehicle factory near the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea, Churchill’s stock is on fire yet another turn.
The Financial Times spoke to the governor of the Saudi fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who confirmed reports from Bloomberg earlier this month that said Lucid was considering building a new factory in the kingdom.
Lucid’s move seems to be a logical step given the company’s track record with the Saudi Arabian fund.
In 2018, a cashless Lucid raised $ 1.3 billion from the Saudis to maintain operations, an investment that depended on the development of a production plant in Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg.
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News of a new plant in Saudi Arabia comes at the back of Lucid’s December announcement of the completion of a 590-acre production facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.
The Arizona plant expects to deliver up to 30,000 units per year in its first years of operation. And in its final form, the manufacturing capacity will grow to 400,000 per year.
If Churchill Capital Corp IV and Lucid merge, the EV company would also withdraw a large amount of money from SPAC to finance its operations in the future.
All of this news has investors taking the chance to buy a blank check company that may or may still be the darling of the EV that can compete with Tesla.
Churchill Capital Corp IV shares traded at around $ 26.79 per share on Monday at 9:31 am EST. SPAC now has a market capitalization of $ 6.93 billion.
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