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- Shares of Churchill Capital Corp IV jumped some 20% on Monday amid continued optimism for a merger with EV Lucid Motors.
- Lucid is in talks with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to create an EV factory in the country.
- The EV manufacturer also recently completed the construction of a 590-acre production facility in Arizona.
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Shares of Churchill Capital Corp IV skyrocketed another 20% on Monday amid continued optimism surrounding a potential merger with Lucid Motors.
The news of Michael Klein’s SPAC potentially merging with EV manufacturer Lucid to take the company public caused shares of the blank-check company to jump some 167% in under three weeks.
Still, Churchill Capital IV has refused to either confirm or deny the reports.
“We do not generally comment on rumors and speculation and will not comment as to whether the Company is or is not pursuing a specific business opportunity other than saying, as noted, we are always evaluating a number of potential business combinations,” the company wrote in a statement on January 19.
Despite the lack of certainty around the merger, hopes of a Lucid acquisition are pushing Churchill Capital Corp IV's stock higher. And with The Financial Times reporting the EV manufacturer is in talks with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to build an electric vehicle factory near the Red Sea city of Jeddah, shares of Churchill are on fire yet again.
The Financial Times spoke with the Saudi fund's governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who confirmed reports out of Bloomberg earlier this month that said Lucid was thinking of making a new factory in the kingdom.
The move by Lucid seems to be a logical step given the company's history with the Saudia Arabian fund.
Back in 2018, a cash-strapped Lucid took in a reported $1.3 billion from the Saudis to keep operations running, an investment that was conditional on Lucid developing a production factory in Saudi Arabia, per Bloomberg.
The news of a new factory in Saudi Arabia comes on the back of Lucid's December announcement of the completion of a 590-acre production facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.
The Arizona factory expects to deliver up to 30,000 units per year in its first years of operation. And in its final form, the manufacturing capacity will grow to 400,000 annually.
If Churchill Capital Corp IV and Lucid do end up merging, the EV company would also draw in a hefty amount of cash from the SPAC to fund its operations going forward.
All of this news has investors jumping at the chance to buy a blank-check company that still may or may be the EV darling that can compete with Tesla.
Churchill Capital Corp IV shares traded around $26.79 per share on Monday at 9:31 am EST. The SPAC now boasts a market cap of $6.93 billion.