Lucid Group Inc (LCID) stock is down 66% over the past year and gets a Bearish rating from Investors Observer Sentiment Indicator.
This came shortly after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) holds nearly 65% of Lucid's common stock.
Sources familiar with the matter said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is really furious over the decline, especially after he has recently decided to increase its Lucid stake by 9.2% to 1.11 billion shares.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group declared that it has completed a planned $1.5 billion equity offering. The company first announced the offering in November, when it reported its third-quarter results.
The announcement came after it reported a net loss of $690 million for the third quarter, on $195.5 million in revenue. Shares were down over 13% in after-market trading.
Lucid Group Inc. fell as much as 13% in late trading after the luxury electric-vehicle startup halved its 2022 production target to 6,000 to 7,000 cars.
The sources also pointed out Saudi Arabia’s PIF is in talks with Aston Martin about taking a stake in the business, as the luxury carmaker seeks to raise additional finances for its next range of cars. Talks are at an early stage.
Aston is facing the challenge of funding its next generation of sports cars, and its first push into electric vehicles, at a time when the business is saddled with debt and producing no net cash.
The company does not expect to begin generating cash until 2023, and one of Aston’s first priorities is to start paying down some of its high-interest debt.
The group has £957mn of net debt at the end of March, and expects to pay about £130mn in debt interest this year.
Along the same line, Saudi National Bank, or SNB, majority-owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund and its largest lender, has committed to $1.5 billion to become a new strategic investor and take a 9.9% stake in Credit Suisse, subject to approval by existing shareholders.
Credit Suisse’s wealth-management returns have reached only 15% in the past couple of years, as its long-brewing scandals and problems managing the bank hurt its operations broadly.
