Lucid Motors Merger Deal Deemed Imminent

New job postings last week by Lucid for positions that only a public company would need, fed some fuel to the speculation that a deal is imminent.

Lucid Motors Merger Deal Deemed Imminent

The explosion of nascent electric vehicle makers in the last few years has resulted in many of those automakers looking to go public through the use of special purpose acquisition companies with the latest also being the biggest: Lucid Motors.

Lucid, led by Tesla's former chief engineer, aims at the luxury auto market. The "blank check" company that's reportedly eyeing Tesla Inc. rival Lucid Motors Inc. was forced to put out an official "no comment" Tuesday after trade was halted in its stock amid growing speculation and unusual trading activity.

Shares of New York-based Churchill Capital Corp. IV, which is led by former Citigroup Inc. banker Michael Klein, have jumped in value by about 50% (NYSE: $CCIV) since a report last week that it is in talks to take Newark-based Lucid public in a reverse merger.

New job postings last week by Lucid for positions that only a public company would need, fed some fuel to the speculation that a deal is imminent. They were for an SEC reporting manager, a director of investor relations and an analyst for investor relations.

Its first cars are expected to go into production at a new Arizona factory late this year. They will be the top-of-the-line Dream Edition, which will go for $169,000 and boasts a driving range of 503 miles between charges. The other models, from the entry-level $69,900 Lucid Air to the $87,500 Touring model and the $131,500 Grand Touring edition, are expected later in 2021 and in 2022.

Lucid just completed construction on its first plant, meanwhile Tesla is simultaneously building new manufacturing sites in Germany and the U.S. – its third and fourth vehicle production sites, respectively – and adding on to its Shanghai Gigafactory.

While Lucid may be the biggest EV-maker SPAC thus far, it’s not the only one floating around the investor universe. Working into the later part of the range of its nine lives Faraday Future is reported to be in talks to merge with Property Solutions Acquisitions Corp ($PSAC)., according to Bloomberg.

It’s hoping to pull together a deal worth $3 billion, with $400 million of that going to the struggling EV maker. The industry has seen so many SPAC deals in recent months with the deal between Fisker and Apollo Global Management Inc. Fisker merged with Spartan Energy Acquisition in a deal that reportedly netted the battery-car company $1 billion.