Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson poses at the Nasdaq MarketSite as Lucid Motors (Nasdaq: LCID) begins trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange after completing its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp IV in New York City, New York, July 26, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Shares of Lucid Group were down by as much as 19.5% during trading Monday morning following the electric vehicle start-up disclosing a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission likely into the company’s SPAC deal to go public.
The automaker said it received a subpoena on Friday from the SEC “requesting the production of certain documents related to an investigation,” according to a filing Monday morning. Lucid said although there is “no assurance as to the scope or outcome of this matter, the investigation appears to concern the business combination” between the automaker and blank-check company Churchill Capital Corp. IV.
“The Company is cooperating fully with the SEC in its review,” Lucid said in the filing.
Shares of Lucid were trading down by about 13% during trading midmorning Monday to around $41 a share.
Lucid is the latest EV start-up to go public via a SPAC deal that’s been investigated by the SEC. Others have included Nikola Corp., Canoo and Lordstown Motors.
Most SPAC deals involving EV start-ups were initially celebrated by investors, sending shares through the roof and making some founders millionaires, if not billionaires, overnight. But the tides have turned against many of the companies after crackdowns this year by the SEC, including investigations, warnings to investors and potential changes to accounting guidelines.
