EV Newcomer Polestar Stock Has a Big and Wild First Trading Day

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The merger of the special-purpose acquisition company

Gores Guggenheim

and the electric-vehicle maker born from Volvo is done, and the stock has launched with a volatile day of trading.

Early Friday, Polestar stock (ticker: PSNY) was at $12.10, up almost 8% to start its first day as a public company on the Nasdaq. But by late morning, the gain had vanished, leaving the shares down about 6.5% at $10.69. Then came the late rally. Shares closed at $13, up 14% for the day.

The

S&P 500
and

Dow Jones Industrial Average
ended Friday with respective gains of 3.1% and 2.7%.

The closing of the deal, which Polestar announced Thursday afternoon, brings roughly $900 million onto the books of the merged company. The final amount might be a little different, depending on how SPAC shareholders voted.

The predecessor stock,

Gores Guggenheim

(GGPI), closed Thursday at $11.23 a share.

At $13 a share, Polestar’s market capitalization is about $27 billion, based on the 2.1 billion shares that are outstanding now that the deal is closed. That works out to about 4.1 times estimated 2023 sales of $6.6 billion.

Polestar plans to ship about 124,000 units in 2023 to generate those sales. The company is delivering vehicles today, and plans to ship about 50,000 in 2022. What’s more, Polestar shipped about 29,000 in 2021.

Polestar manufactures its vehicles at facilities it owns in China.

Polestar’s market cap is north of $20 billion, making it clear that investors consider the company a major EV player. The market caps of

Rivian Automotive

(RIVN) and

Lucid Group

(LCID) are about $27 billion and $32 billion, respectively. Chinese EV maker

NIO

(

NIO

) has a market cap of about $37 billion, while

Ford Motor’s

(F) is roughly $48 billion.

The newly merged company will ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq on June 28.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]