Rivian plans to hit the US stock market
The electric car manufacturer Rivian has filed its documents for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Furthermore, Rivian wants to carry out the IPO on its own and not, like many other eMobility companies, merge with an exchange shell.
Rivian could expect a valuation of around 70 to 80 billion dollars for its intended stock market debut. According to media sources, the company’s desired date would be an IPO around 25 November this year. The SEC has not yet decided on the filed ‘S-1’ prospectus. If it were to approve the IPO, it would be one of the biggest IPOs (initial public offerings) of the year.
The size and price range of the IPO would still need to be determined, Rivian wrote in a terse note to the SEC form filing. In addition, the IPO is subject to “market and other conditions”, it said.
The IPO announcement comes at a time when Rivian has yet to deliver a vehicle under its own brand to a customer. While deliveries of the R1T electric pickup are expected to start soon, Rivian has postponed the dates for the R1S electric SUV indefinitely for now. Besides the pickups, which are in demand in the USA, the electric delivery van is a priority for major customer and shareholder Amazon. But the company is also preoccupied with the global semiconductor crisis.
Rivian, headquartered in Irvine, California, has a vehicle plant in Normal, Illinois, which was built by Mitsubishi and acquired by Rivian in 2017. In addition, there are already plans for a second US plant and also a European plant – among others, a location near Bristol was recently under discussion. Rivian has announced its European launch for early 2022. However, it is not yet clear which models will be sold here.
For a long time, Rivian was considered one of the eMobility start-ups that could really succeed in taking the step to series production. With backers like Ford and Amazon, Rivian is considered well-funded – since the beginning of 2019, Rivian has raised $10.5 billion. However, the capital needed to ramp up production and build the other plants is very high. Other backers include some well-known US investors, such as T. Rowe Price, Blackrock, Soros Fund Management or Fidelity.
Media reports refer to the market prospects for Rivian not only to the growing competition in the electric pickup truck segment, but also to the stock market situation of other electric car start-ups. Lordstown Motor and Canoo are far below their issue price. Lucid Motors is still above the issue price, “but far below peak prices”. And the former CEO of electric truck maker Nikola is under SEC investigation for possible misrepresentation in its IPO. But all four companies mentioned have taken the shortcut via the merger with a SPAC, a stock market shell.
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