Electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive is targeting a market valuation of $55 billion U.S. in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO).
The company said it plans to offer 135 million shares priced between $57 U.S. and $62 U.S., with an option for underwriters to purchase up to 20.25 million additional shares. At the high end of that pricing range, Rivian would bring in roughly $9.6 billion U.S. in its market debut, assuming underwriters exercise that option.
Rivian plans to go public as soon as next week and plans to list on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "RIVN," according to Rivian’s IPO prospectus filed last month.
Rivian’s prospectus shows that investors, including Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and T. Rowe Price, have indicated an interest in buying up to $5 billion U.S. in shares in aggregate at the time of the IPO. The company said it will also give retail investors access to purchase a portion of its IPO shares through SoFi’s online brokerage platform.
The valuation would make Rivian the titan among a crop of electric vehicle start-ups and recently public companies from the U.S., including Fisker (NYSE:FSR), Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ:RIDE) and Lucid, (NASDAQ:LCID) and would put it on par with Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio.
It would also mean Rivian is only slightly less valuable than traditional automotive giants such as Ford and General Motors.
Rivian is developing commercial last-mile delivery vans for Amazon, which has said it plans to have 10,000 vans on the road by 2022 and 100,000 by 2030. Rivian also beat Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), GM (NYSE:GM) and Ford (NYSE:F) to the market with an electric pick-up truck, the R1T, which has received positive reviews.
The company noted in its amended prospectus that it’s delivered 156 R1T pick-up trucks as of the end of October and plans to deliver 1,000 by the end of the year.
Amazon last week disclosed it has a 20% stake in Rivian, which, combined with other equity investments, had a carrying value of up to $3.8 billion U.S.
