Last Wednesday, shares of Rivian, a manufacturer of electric SUVs and pickups, began trading on the Nasdaq. The Wall Street debut was America’s largest first public offering (IPO) since 2012, when Facebook shares began trading on the stock exchange. From the original price of $ 78, the shares reached more than $ 100 apiece after the first day and the market value of the carmaker exceeded $ 100 billion.
The record IPO brought the company $ 12 billion to fund further development. Sharp stock prices continued to rise in the following days, closing Tuesday’s trading at $ 172 apiece. Then came the first slump, during Wednesday Rivian shares fell by more than 15 percent. However, the company remains among the most valuable carmakers in the world, according to Thursday’s data on the prices of leading manufacturers, it is in third place in the imaginary ranking.
Rivian’s market capitalization is now about $ 10 billion higher than the value of the German Volkswagen Group. However, it sold 9.3 million cars worldwide last year and generated a profit of 9.7 billion euros. Rivian has virtually no revenue yet. The carmaker, founded in 2009, started producing its electric cars only in September this year and supplied only a few dozen customers.
Two cars a day
According to documents provided by Rivian to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as of October 22, 2021, the carmaker had so far produced 56 five-seater pickups for the R1T. It delivered 42 cars to customers, but most ended up with the company’s employees. “We plan to begin delivery of the seven-seater R1S SUV in December 2021 after the ongoing vehicle validation and all required tests have been completed,” the company said.
There is tension between Volkswagen management and employees because of Tesla — |
By the end of this decade, the carmaker wants to produce a million cars a year, according to its boss RJ Scaringe. So far, however, it is less than two a day.
At the end of September, according to documents for the SEC, the carmaker registered about 50,000 orders for its cars. However, when the e-shop giant Amazon bought a fifth of the company in 2019, its boss Jeff Bezos spoke of ordering 100,000 cars from Rivian, in an effort to transform logistics green. In addition to Amazonian Rivian, Ford also supported Rivian.
Other major Wall Street investors, including T. Rowe Price and Blackrock, are betting, according to the agency Reuters that Rivian will be another major player in the field of electromobility, dominated by Tesla. The rapid interest in Rivian and other electric car manufacturers is driving global efforts by governments and corporations to address the impacts of climate change.
Disputed awards
In addition to Rivian, another American newcomer to the stock market, the Lucid Group, whose shares have roughly doubled since mid-October, is reaping success on the stock exchange. In terms of market capitalization, Lucid is already bigger than the “traditional” American carmaker Ford.
In a few years, there will be an electric car up to half a million, says Radek Špicar in Rozstřel — |
Rivian and Lucid are the first representatives of a new wave of electric car manufacturers that will try to imitate Tesla’s stock growth, the newspaper writes Financial Times. Billionaire Elon Musk’s company jumped over a trillion-dollar market capitalization last month thanks to its stock market success.
“Many investors have become rich thanks to Tesla and now they all want to be part of another big event in the electric car market. Unfortunately, companies like Tesla don’t come very often and the valuations of Rivian and Lucid are controversial, especially compared to existing automakers, “analyst Jessica Caldwell of the Edmunds data company told the daily.
“It’s just a sign of an unhealthy stock market,” commented Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, on the stock market success of Rivian and Lucida. In an interview with the server Yahoo Finance he warned that a bubble was forming on stock exchanges thanks to electric car manufacturers. Also CNBC investment expert Jim Cramer recommends caution and recalls in this context the so-called turn-of-the-mill Internet fever, which has collapsed a number of overvalued technology companies.
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