Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
A senior Lucid executive said on Tuesday he was not aware of any agreements that would reduce Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) stake in the electric vehicle maker below 50%, following questions from a Wall Street analyst during the company’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call.
Gagan Dhingra, Lucid’s Senior Vice President, Finance, and Principal Accounting Officer, said during the Q&A session that the company believes PIF has a stake of 58.4% based on the number of shares issued.
The response came after Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas asked whether there were agreements in place that could lower the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s stake to “as low as 45%.”
“I know that prospectus was previously out there, but in identifying your largest shareholder, it does raise questions in terms of whether you would be a controlled company if they were to fall below 50%,” Jonas stated. “We’re getting some questions about that and would just love to hear any messages that you wanted to convey to the extent that you can on that position.”
After Lucid’s executive confirmed that the PIF holds 58.4% of the shares issued, the analyst questioned, “But there’s agreements to reduce that, correct?”
“None that I’m aware of,” Dhingra answered.
Lucid, headquartered in California, raised over $1.7 billion through a public offering and private placement in October. The offering included a public sale of more than 262 million shares, while Ayar Third Investment — a PIF affiliate — committed to purchasing nearly 375 million shares through a private placement.
PIF, which has backed Lucid since 2018, remains the company’s largest shareholder and a key financial backer as the EV maker seeks to ramp up production and expand internationally.
Lucid currently has 675 institutional investors holding a combined 2.25 billion shares, a new record high.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, disclosed in its latest quarterly filing that it added 5.4 million shares in the EV maker in the fourth quarter of 2024. The firm increased its stake in the company by 12.7%.
BlackRock ended the year holding more than 48.5 million Lucid shares, valued at nearly $147 million, according to its latest 13F filing.