Saudi Arabia owns more than half of Lucid Motors

The start- up Californian Lucid Motors has abandoned the majority of the sovereign capital of Saudi Arabia in exchange for the $ 1.3 billion investment it closed last year, according to an email from lawyers for the company which was in a legal action filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed by former Lucid Motors chief financial officer Doug Coates, who believes he is entitled to certain severance benefits depending on the language of the agreement he signed with the company. Coates argues that he is eligible for these benefits because the investment in Saudi Arabia triggered a "change of control clause in his agreement with Lucid Motors, as it resulted in" a change of majority shareholder in the company, according to an email from its lawyer, to the startup sent last year. This means that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia holds more than 50% of the shares of the company.

The company's former chief financial officer is suing for his severance pay

Lucid Motors disagrees on the issue of severance pay, but the company said in response tothe email from Coates' lawyer that "he does not dispute that the financing transaction which was concluded on or about April 2, 2019 appears to constitute a change of control. Wired Middle East previously reported that the PIF had taken a 67% stake , but the email included in the lawsuit is the first time that an acknowledgment of receipt from the company has been made public. That said, the type of voting rights available to the various shareholders of the company remains uncertain. The company declined to comment.

Saudi Arabia first announced the deal in September 2018 - just weeks before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman got the Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi is killed. Khashoggi's death prompted companies like Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit to give up takingre Kingdom money or take a second look at the country’s long history of human rights violations. Many participants in this year's Future Investment Initiative conference (known as "Davos in the Desert) have withdrawn. But Lucid Motors has remained a Saudi Arabian partner ever since, although the deal has not been formally approved by the U.S. government committee on foreign investment in the U.S. until April 2019 .

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In fact, in an interview with The Verge in November last, Peter Rawlinson, CEO of Lucid Motors, hinted that his startup would be able to influence the UK - not the other way around.

"I think we can be part of a movement that could catalyze change for good. That's what I see, said Rawlinson at the "We have a partnership - which is very aligned - a partnership with the PIF. It is a strategic partnership. They are committed to helping us make this change for the benefit of all humanity. And that will benefit Saudi society. "

" Lucid is part of the solution, not the problem ", he added.

Lucid Motors is not the only futuristic transport company linked to Saudi Arabia, which has focused on investing in new technologies as part of Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan. Virgin Hyperloop One - separate from Branson's space efforts - studies Kingdom to seewhat kind of presence the startup could build there. FormulaE, the world's first fully electric racing series, has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia to host races in the Kingdom. Virgin Hyperloop One CEO Jay Walder, Formula E founder Alejandro Agag and Rawlinson also all appeared at the next Davos in the desert last October, while many other companies and executives stayed behind. difference.

"Lucid is part of the solution, not part of the problem. "

Saudi Arabia is also a major investor in Uber and had early conversations about Tesla financing in 2018 before CEO Elon Musk exaggerating the discussions by tweeting that he had "secure funding to take over his private company, which led to a fight with US financial regulators. TheSaudi Arabia also invested $ 45 billion in SoftBank's massive Vision Fund, which has made a plethora of investments.

Founded in 2007 under the name of Atieva, the Californian startup EV was originally focused on being more of a supplier to the emerging world of electric vehicles. But the company finally changed its name to Lucid Motors in 2016 and set itself the goal of manufacturing a luxury electric sedan called Air, and hired Rawlinson, the former chief engineer of Tesla's Model S, to execute the project.

Lucid Motors ran into financing problems soon after and had to take out loans from an Arizona hedge fund and a company electric bus to survive, as The Verge previously reported. It finally entered into discussions with Saudi Arabia in 2018, and when the deal was finally reached in 2019, Rawlinson replaced Atieva co-founder Sam Weng as CEO.

The startup is currently building a $ 700 million factory in Arizona, where it plans to put Lucid Air into production later this year. The final production version of the sedan will be unveiled on September 9.