By Crystal Tse and Ed Ludlow | bloomberg
Irvine-based Rivian Automotive, an Amazon.com-backed electric truck maker, is planning to raise up to $8.4 billion in an initial public offering, which could value it up to $53 billion.
Rivian said it plans to sell 135 million shares for $57 to $62 each, according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On top of that range, Rivian would have a market value of $53 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing. Accounting for employee stock options and restricted stock units, the fully diluted value of the company is close to $60 billion.
That compares with a valuation of $27.6 billion after a $2.65 billion funding round in January, Bloomberg News reported.
This listing will supersede XPeng Inc.’s June IPO, which is the largest IPO ever for an EV maker. XPeng raised over HK$16 billion ($2 billion), including so-called Greenshoe shares, in its Hong Kong IPO. Electric-vehicle leader Tesla Inc., which has a current market value of $1.2 trillion, posted a listing for $260 million in 2010.
Rivian has attracted cornerstone investors who have indicated an interest of up to $5 billion in IPO shares, its filing shows. Investors include Amazon.com Inc., T. Rowe Price, Coatue Management, Franklin Templeton, Capital Research Global Investments, D1 Capital, Third Point Investors, Blackstone Inc., Dragoneer Investment Group and Soros Funds.
Bloomberg News reported in August that Rivian was seeking a listing valued at about $80 billion, when the company announced that it had confidentially filed for an IPO.
The company’s IPO plans come as electric vehicle makers are vying for a bigger segment of the growing market. With $10.5 billion in funding from backers including Amazon and Ford Motor Co., an established factory in Illinois, and thousands of reservation holders for its R1T truck and R1S sport utility vehicle, Rivian is one of the most serious competitors to take on Tesla.
Rivian reported a net loss of $994 million in the first six months of 2021, compared to a loss of $377 million a year ago.
Besides Amazon, Rivian’s biggest investors include T. Roe Price, Global Oryx Company and associates of Mannheim Investments, its filings show.
To help attract retail investors, Rivian plans to allocate a portion of its IPO shares to SoFi Securities LLC’s online brokerage platform. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is expected to maintain control of Rivian through a class of stock that would give him 10 votes per share, while one vote each for shares sold in the IPO.
The offering was led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. More than 20 banks are listed on the cover page of its prospectus. Rivian plans to trade under the symbol RIVN for its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
