Lucid receives subpoena from SEC related to stock deal

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 EV maker said on Monday.

"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.

Shares in Lucid fell 8 percent in midday trading Monday.

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 EV makers such as Nikola Corp and Fisker Inc.

Market listing via SPAC route has become popular among EV makers that have a vision but no prototype in an already capital intensive industry.

"The problem is a lot of these companies that have taken this approach are not far enough along to really be considered a viable company," said Sam Abuelsamid, an auto analyst at Guidehouse Insights.

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.