Tuesday Ticker: June 15, 2021
Toronto, Ontario — Electric trucks are the hot topic in this week’s Tuesday Ticker, as Rivian brings in underwriters for a rumoured initial public offering (IPO) and a Lordstown, Ohio truck startup makes amends to its annual SEC report. Plus, United Auto Workers President Gary Jones is sentenced for his involvement in an embezzlement scheme involving 15 other former union members.
Electric assets
Electric truck startup Rivian Automotive has selected underwriters for an initial public offering (IPO) that could come later this year, reported Bloomberg News.
Rivian is working with advisors including Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company could seek a value of US$70 billion when it goes public, cited Bloomberg.
Rivian was worth US$27.6 billion when it announced in January that it had raised US$2.65 billion from backers, including T. Rowe Price Group Inc., Fidelity Investments and Amazon.
The first deliveries of Rivian’s debut vehicle, the battery-electric pickup dubbed R1T, were delayed from June to July last month, though the automaker did not give a reason why. Canadian deliveries are set to begin in November 2021.
Looming doom in Lordstown?
Last week, Ohio-based EV startup Lordstown Motors said it was at risk of failing.
Despite touting nearly US$600 million in cash, Lordstown amended an annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it was possible it would no longer function in a year’s time, according to reports from the Financial Times.
The same report also said Lordstown is unlikely to produce the Endurace electric truck, though the company has denied these claims.
In January, Lordstown Motors said it had received 100,000 orders for the Endurance.
A case of corruption
The former President of the U.S.-based United Auto Workers (UAW) union has been sentenced to 28 months in prison for “conspiring with other UAW officials to embezzle UAW funds and to defraud the United States,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan.
Gary Jones, who served as UAW president from June 2018 to November 2019, was charged on his conviction for conspiring with former UAW President Dennis Williams and other senior UAW officials to embezzle UAW dues money, spending the cash on trips, golfing, alcohol and other luxuries.
Jones will also pay US$550,000 in restitution to the UAW, US$42,000 restitution to the IRS, forfeiture of US$151,377, serve two years of supervised release, and a US$10,000 fine by United States District Judge Paul Borman.
Jones plead guilty to corruption and is one of 15 people to be charged.
