Rivian prices stock at $78 to make IPO biggest of 2021, sixth-largest ever

Electric vehicle-maker Rivian Automotive Inc. priced shares in its initial public offering at $78 apiece to raise about $11.9 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Backed by deep pocketed companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., Rivian is hitting the public markets as it looks to make a dent in the electric vehicle market led by Tesla Inc.

Rivian sold 153 million shares in the offering, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

Rivian’s $11.9 billion haul makes it the biggest listing of 2021, and the sixth-largest ever on a U.S. exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The IPO comes as Rivian delivered its first vehicles, mostly to its own employees, just a couple of months ago. It will only produce about 1,200 units by year-end at its plant in Normal, Illinois. The company, which lost nearly $1 billion in the first half of the year, estimates that annual production will hit 150,000 vehicles at its main facility by late 2023.

Based on the share count, Rivian is being valued at about $76.4 billion on a fully diluted basis that accounts for stock options, the people added. That compares with a valuation of $27.6 billion after a $2.65 billion funding round in January, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Rivian had earlier marketed 135 million shares at $72 to $74 after elevating that range from $57 to $62, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A representative for Rivian couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the price, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Big Backers

Though it’s a newcomer to the public market, Irvine, California-based Rivian’s entry into the world of consumer electric vehicles has been more than a decade in the making.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe set up the first iteration of what would become Rivian in 2009 in his home state of Florida.

Over the years, it attracted a wide array of backers. As much as $5 billion of the IPO shares are set to be bought by investors including Amazon, T. Rowe Price, Coatue Management, Franklin Templeton, Capital Research Global Investors, D1 Capital, Third Point Investors, Blackstone Inc., Dragoneer Investment Group and Soros Funds.

Rivian had a net loss of $994 million in the first six months of 2021, compared with a $377 million deficit a year earlier, according to its filings. Rivian expected to record a quarterly net loss of as much as $1.28 billion due to costs associated with the start of production of the R1T.

Rivian plans to allocate up to 7% of its shares to eligible U.S. customers who had pre-orders as of Sept. 30. To attract retail investors, up to 0.4% of the IPO shares will be allocated to SoFi Securities LLC’s online brokerage platform. Scaringe is expected to maintain outsize influence over Rivian through a class of stock giving him 10 votes per share, compared with one vote each for the shares sold in the IPO.

The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., with more than 20 banks listed on the cover page of its prospectus. Rivian shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol RIVN.