Clean tech and energy IPO Transportation & Logistics

Amazon And Other Big Winners In Rivian’s Supercharged IPO

In an already record-breaking year for public offerings, electric-vehicle maker Rivian’s initial public offering is expected to be the largest IPO of 2021.

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Although Rivian is more or less a pre-revenue company, the size of its IPO shows that investors are betting big on an electric future. That makes sense, given a slew of public policy mandates that have incentivized the shift to electric vehicles, and how well Tesla’s stock has performed   this year.

Rivian first raised debt financing around a decade ago, but the majority of its fundraising  happened in the past two or so years. Its first round of funding that wasn’t debt financing was a $700 million corporate round led by Amazon in February 2019, according to Crunchbase data. As a private company, it’s raised around $10.5 billion in funding.

The company set a price range of between $72 and $74 per share for its IPO. If it prices at the top of its range, Rivian could be valued at as much as $65 billion. 

With Rivian shares expected to start trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday under the ticker RIVN, let’s take a look at the investors set to win big through the public offering.

Amazon: Amazon said in 2019 that it would order up to 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian as part of an effort to electrify its delivery fleet. The same year, it decided to invest $700 million into the EV maker. The fleet partnership means Rivian has a steady stream of income coming from a deep-pocketed company. After participating in multiple other funding rounds, Amazon is now the largest stockholder in Rivian, with more than 160 million Class A shares, or 22 percent, before the offering. If Rivian prices its shares at the top of its range ($74), Amazon’s stake in the company would be worth $11.8 billion.

T. Rowe Price: T. Rowe Price has been a major investor in Rivian, leading three funding rounds and co-leading a fourth, according to Crunchbase data. It’s also worth noting that T. Rowe Price led Rivian’s largest funding rounds. It’s now the second-largest shareholder in the company, after Amazon, and has more than 133.6 million shares, or nearly 19 percent, before the offering. At the top of Rivian’s IPO price range, T. Rowe Price’s stake comes out to around $9.9 billion.

Global Oryx Company Ltd.: Global Oryx Company, a subsidiary of Abdul Latif Jameel Companies, invested in Rivian, becoming one of the company’s largest shareholders. Before Rivian’s offering, the firm owned nearly 16 percent of Rivian’s shares. If Rivian shares prices at the top of their range, its stake would be worth around $8.4 billion. 

Ford Motor Co.: Ford is making the shift to electric itself, but it’s also a major investor in Rivian. The auto giant led Rivian’s $500 million round in 2019, and invested in subsequent rounds. The company owned around 14 percent of the company’s shares before the offering. If Rivian prices at $74 per share, Ford’s stake would be worth nearly $7.6 billion. 

Manheim Investments : Manheim Investments is listed as one of the largest shareholders in Rivian. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because Cox Automotive led a $350 million corporate round into Rivian in September 2019 and, according to Rivian’s S-1 filing, Manheim Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Automotive, acquired the shares. The firm’s stake in Rivian before the offering is about 5.5 percent. At the top of Rivian’s IPO range, the firm’s stake would be worth about $2.9 billion.

Photo courtesy of Rivian

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