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Lucid plans to reach the very high segment of the automotive market.
Courtesy of Lucid Motors
The potential merger between a special purpose acquisition company
Churchill Capital Corp IV
and the EV startup Lucid Motors appears to be one of Wall Street’s worst-kept secrets.
Churchill (ticker: CCIV) shares are firing again after another report that a merger announcement was imminent. However, neither company is ready to confirm the deal.
Churchill’s shares rose about 30% to $ 52 in Tuesday’s midday trading session. The shares traded below $ 37 earlier in the day. The stock was interrupted for short periods due to volatility.
The deal values Lucid at about $ 12 billion. Churchill has about $ 2 billion in cash in his books, which means he will have about 17% of the new company. This is a very approximate guide and will change when, or if, the details of the deal arise.
With Churchill’s shares trading at $ 52, Lucid’s implied and updated value may exceed $ 40 billion. Most SPAC trades are based on the $ 10 unit price at which SPACs issue shares.
It is simply not clear whether the $ 12 billion figure is the valuation today or the valuation that the deal is closed. There are few details. Churchill and Lucid were not immediately available to comment on today’s report.
EV maker
Fisker
(FSR), in comparison, is valued at about $ 6 billion, based on its 294 million fully diluted shares outstanding. Fisker plans to offer an approximately $ 40,000 SUV for sale around 2022.
Lucid plans to reach the very high segment of the automotive market. It will start with an aspirational EV model that can cost more than $ 165,000 and boast 1,080 horsepower, fast load times and over 500 miles of range on a single charge. The first sophisticated Lucids could hit the streets later this year, before the company produced low-cost luxury cars in 2022.
Expectations for Lucid products are high. Churchill’s shares have risen more than 400% in the past three months, crushing the company’s comparable returns
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]