Amazon Inc backed electric truck maker Rivian to raise $8.4 billion in its IPO, giving the company a market capitalization of $53 billion.
Rivian plans to offer 135 million shares priced in the range of $57 -$62 each to the public, according to details in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As per Bloomberg news, after accounting for the employee stock options and restricted stocks, the fully diluted value of the company would be close to $60 billion. This is in comparison to the company’s valuation of $27.6 billion after receiving a $2.65 billion round of funding in January this year.
Rivian listing would make it the largest IPO eclipsing the E.V. maker XPeng Inc IPO in June. XPeng had raised $2 billion (HK$16 billion), including its greenshoe shares. E.V. market leaders Tesla Inc. had raised $260 million in its 2010 IPO and has a current market value of $1.2 trillion.
Cornerstone investors have indicated their interest in underwriting up to $5 billion of the IPO shares as per the filing details. They include new and existing investors such as Blackstone Inc, Capital Research Global Investors, Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Soros Funds., T, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Third Point Investors, D1 Capital, and Amazon.com Inc.
Apart from Amazon, Rivian’s biggest investors include affiliates of Manheim Investments, Global Oryx Co, and T. Rowe Price.
California-based Rivian had initially sought a valuation of $80 billion in its listing, as reported by Bloomberg News in August. At that time, the company had announced it had filed confidentially for the IPO.
Scaling Up of EVs
Rivian IPO comes at a time when E.V. makers are scaling up their productions and seeking a higher market share in this growing segment. Rivian has raised $10.5 billion from Ford Motor and Amazon and is looking to be a serious competitor to Tesla with its established factory in Illinois and booking a reservation for its R1 T truck and R1 S Sport utility models.
Rivian had a non-binding order of 55,400 R1T and R1S models in the U.S. and Canada as of 31 October 2021. The sale of its debut model, R1T, began in September. However, the company has cautioned that the deliveries of its R1S and EDV models could be delayed beyond December.
Rivian produced 180 R1Ts and delivered 156 numbers by 31st October as per its filing. The prospectus said the company intends to manufacture about 1,200 R1Ts and 25 R1Ss and deliver around 1,000 R1Ts and 15 R1Ss by the end of December.
Compared to a net loss of $377 million in the first half of 2020, Rivian’s net loss increased to $994 million for the same period in 2021. The company is expected to record a quarterly net loss of $1.28 billion due to preoperative costs associated with its production facility for R1T.
Allotment to Customers
As a part of its strategy for retail customers, Rivian has set aside 0.5% of the shares for online brokerage firm SoFi Securities LLC. It also plans to allocate 7% of the IPO to eligible customers in the U.S. who had pre-orders on 30 September.
R.J. Scaringe, founder, and CEO of Rivian has ten votes per share power compared to one vote to the public shareholders giving him an outside influence over the company.
The IPO is managed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. More than 20 banks to the public issue are listed on its Prospectus cover page. The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol RIVN.
