Ford Motors To Sell 8 Million Shares in Electric Car start-up Rivian

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According to CNBC’s David Faber, Ford Motor is selling 8 million Rivian Automotive stock, with an insider hold for the formerly high-flying electric car producer due to expire this Sunday.

Rivian now has 102 million shares owned by the automaker. According to sources, Ford will sell the stock through Goldman Sachs.

Early investors and corporate executives are unable to sell their stock during the lockup window after a firm is publicly listed. This guarantees that the IPO proceeds smoothly and that more shares do not overwhelm the market.

According to Faber, JPMorgan Chase reportedly intends to dispose of a Rivian stock block of between 13M and 15M to an undisclosed buyer. The stock prices in both stock blocks are valued at $26.90 per share.

The electric vehicle company’s stock had dropped over 50% in the first quarter of 022, correcting a trend that began in Q4 2021, when the business went public and saw its worth surge.

Rivian estimated in March that it would build 25,000 electric SUVs and trucks this year, despite supply chain bottlenecks and internal operational difficulties. That’s less than half of the automobile output forecasted to investors during last year’s IPO presentation.

In a letter to shareholders, the company said that the company is not immune to supply chain disruption that has impacted the whole sector in the near term. The company expects the issues to continue throughout the year, and they have added a complexity layer to its production ramp-up. According to Rivian, reservations for its cars as of March 8 were around 83,000, increasing from 71,000 at the end of the December quarter.

When the Rivian reported its Q4 financial results recently, it indicated that the anticipated production increase would come with an adjusted operating loss of $4.75 billion this year with capital expenses of around $2.6 billion.

In the fourth quarter, the company produced revenue of $54 million compared to analysts’ forecasts of $60 million. Adjusted loss per share missed estimates of $1.97 per share, with the company reporting a loss per share of $2.43.

Rivian announced a $2.8 billion adjusted operating loss for 2021, including a $1.1 billion in Q4, indicating much higher losses than the previous year. The company’s net loss for 2021 was $4.7B, which included  $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter.

The company did not provide revenue projections for 2022, but consensus predictions from Refintiv expect a full-year adjusted loss of $4.97 per share and sales of $3.16 billion.

The CEO of Rivian R.J. Scaringe announced on Thursday that the company could produce over 50,000 vehicles in 2022 were it not for the supply chain problems. He told investors that the company is working hard to ramp up suppliers.

Rivian is one of the most successful early-stage electric car companies. At its plant in Normal, Illinois, the company began producing three different cars in late 2021. Consumer vehicles include the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV, and an electric delivery truck. The first van orders are being sent to Amazon, which owns a 20% investment in the company. However, the company would not say how many cars it had built and shipped to Amazon.

Scaringe also provided additional facts about the new low cost and low range “Standard” lithium batteries, unveiled on March 1.

The new battery packs will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells that do not contain cobalt or nickel, two metals whose prices have risen dramatically in recent months. According to Scaringe, these new Standard car batteries will be deployed in the RCV delivery vehicles that the firm is creating for Amazon later in the year, but not until 2024 in the R1T and R1S variants.

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Neha Gupta
Neha Gupta
Neha Gupta has cleared CFA Level 2 from CFA Institute (USA). She has worked in diverse capacities from financial research to currency trading in a span of 10 years. Neha also covers technology, finance, retail, automotive, energy and other sectors news.