"LCID" to begin NASDAQ trading on Monday, after Lucid Motors and Churchill Capital pass SPAC merger
The Lucid Air promises performance, style, and exceptional quality, but can it beat Tesla at its own game? Image: Lucid
After a rocky start to its shareholder vote last Thursday, where the company failed to receive enough votes from retail investors to approve its merger with Churchill Capital IV, NASDAQ reports that the deal successfully went through on Friday, after Churchill Capital IV and Lucid extended the deadline for shareholders to vote, and executives pleaded with investors to vote in favor of all proposals in order to cross the finish line.
NASDAQ reports that some investors saw the move as highly dilutive based on misinterpretations of Lucid’s regulatory filings, which details a 2.61 exchange ratio of Churchill Capital IV shares to Lucid stock. This high exchange ratio is not actually relevant to the SPAC's public investors, who incorrectly feared that excessive dilution could adversely impact the value of the investment. Lucid will receive approximately $4.4 billion (after transaction expenses) in cash from the SPAC merger.
"Lucid has further increased its momentum as we gear up to make the first customer deliveries of our Lucid Air lineup of electric sedans later this year," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement. "We are making significant investments in the long-term growth and innovation of our company, and we will continue to bring to bear world-class technology to positively impact mankind's transition to sustainable mobility."
Lucid recently opened its NYC design studio in the Meatpacking District. Image: Lucid
Auto manufacturing is an expensive business, and even more so for a startup like Lucid that doesn’t have a bank account the size of Volkswagen’s or General Motors’ to throw at electromobility. This Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) trend on Wall Street has been taking off in the automotive sector, with companies like Fisker and Nikola also receiving an injection of funds through the SPAC investment process. Essentially a shell company, a SPAC is set up for the sole purpose of raising capital to acquire another company. Generally, a SPAC’s only asset is the money raised in its own IPO.
Lucid’s first EV, the Air, is currently undergoing final testing and development, and the company plans to officially commence customer deliveries “in the second half of 2021”. CEO Peter Rawlinson has already delayed deliveries from (northern hemisphere) Spring this year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an impediment to that target date. The Air is a luxurious, Mercedes-Benz S-Class rival, initially launching in the highest specification, with 500 miles (805 km) of range and over 1,000 hp (745 kW). More affordable variants will be launched in due course, as rivals to Tesla’s Model S, BMW’s i4 Gran Coupe, and the Mercedes-Benz EQE. Pricing for the Lucid Air in the United States is as follows:
Air Dream Edition - $169,000
Air Grand Touring - $139,000
Air Touring - $95,000
Air Pure - $77,400
Source: NASDAQ