IPO from Rivian

Electric car startup Rivian, backed by Amazon and Ford, has filed a new Form S-1 with the SEC, with a tentative share price to go public. In the IPO, Rivian hopes to raise $8.4bn. The success of Tesla increases investor interest in electric car start-ups.

Rivian filed a new IPO application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, with an estimated initial public offering price for its shares ranging from $57 to $62 per common share. Rivian intends to go public on the Nasdaq exchange and the shares will be listed under the symbol "RIVN".

Rivian plans to offer 135 million shares, meaning the company could potentially raise $8.4 billion in an IPO, which it could spend on building production lines.

Underwriters also have the option to buy up to an additional 20.25 million shares. If they take advantage of this opportunity, Rivian would raise $9.6 billion. Rivian said in a statement on Monday that investors including Amazon and T. Rowe Price had expressed interest in buying up to $5 billion worth of shares in aggregate at the time of the IPO.

According to a recently released Amazon (AMNZ) filing, the e-commerce giant owns a 20 per cent stake in Rivian, being the company's largest investor. To date, Amazon has invested more than $1.3bn in Rivian.

According to Ford (F) documents filed with the SEC, the carmaker owns more than 5% of Rivian.

Rivian's IPO could be the third largest in the last decade in the US

Based on the number of shares outstanding, Rivian's market valuation could be around $53 billion. If employee stock options and other restricted shares are added, Rivian's valuation could reach $60 billion.

That makes this electric car startup potentially almost as valuable as its rival Honda Motor. And Rivian's raising around $8.4bn in an IPO would make it the third-largest IPO raised in the US over the past decade. Alibaba (BABA), for example, raised a record $25bn in 2014, Meta Platforms (Facebook) raised $16bn in 2012 and Uber (UBER) raised $8.1bn in 2019.

Interest in electric car stocks has surged in recent years on the back of the success of Tesla (TSLA), plus Rivian is focused on offering the most popular and sought-after vehicles pick-up trucks, SUVs and commercial vans.

Amazon is currently Rivian's largest customer, expecting to deliver 10,000 specially designed delivery vans by 2022 and 100,000 units by 2030.