Electric-car maker Lucid receives subpoena from SEC

[December 06, 2021]  (Reuters) -Lucid Group Inc has received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking documents related to an investigation on its blank-check deal, the Luxury electric-car maker said on Monday, sending its shares down about 15%.

A logo on a Lucid Air Dream Edition vehicle is seen outside the Nasdaq MarketSite as Lucid Motors (Nasdaq: LCID) begins trading today on the Nasdaq stock exchange after completing its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp IV in New York City, New York, U.S., July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

"The investigation appears to concern the business combination between the Company (Churchill Capital Corp. IV) and Atieva Inc and certain projections and statements," the company said in a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/32TtoSE.

The deal, which was completed earlier this year, was with veteran dealmaker Michael Klein's blank-check acquisition firm.

It was one of the biggest in a string of deals with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) that included electric vehicle makers such as Nikola Corp and Fisker Inc.

Founded in 2007 as Atieva Inc by former Tesla executive Bernard Tse and entrepreneur Sam Weng, Lucid plans to achieve production target of 20,000 vehicles in 2022 and 50,000 in 2023.

It was funded initially by Chinese and Silicon Valley venture investors, with additional funding from backers like state-owned Chinese auto maker BAIC Motor and Chinese technology company LeEco.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Arun Koyyur)

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