Ford slashes Rivian stake to 1.15% amid production woes at EV maker

Ford Motor Co. has cut its stake in struggling EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc. to 1.15 percent, a week after the Detroit automaker reported a fall in profit and predicted a tough year ahead.

Shares of Rivian, which declined to comment on the matter, slipped 2.9 percent on Friday to close at $18.85. For shares rose 0.3 percent to close at $12.73.

Ford, which wrote down the value of its Rivian investment by $7.4 billion in 2022, has been paring down its stake amid production struggles at the Irvine, Calif.-based company. Ford held a 11.4 percent stake in Rivian at the end of 2021.

The new stake, disclosed in a Wednesday filing, comes a week after Reuters reported Rivian's plans to lay off 6% of its staff to cut costs amid falling cash reserves on the back of mounting economic worries.

Rivian shares also had a bleak 2022, losing about 82 percent of their value.

The company, which has been losing money on every vehicle it builds, narrowly missed its full-year production target of 25,000 units last year as it dealt with supply-chain disruptions.