Arrival went public as a result of the merger with SPAC

Denis Sverdlov at Arrival headquarters in London. ARRIVAL

An electric vehicle startup that’s yet to put a car on the road has made its founder and chief executive, Denis Sverdlov, a billionaire after trading opened Thursday morning on the Nasdaq exchange in New York.

London-based Arrival, which makes super-lightweight electric trucks and buses, went public at $22.40 per share. The price sunk to $18.30, before closing its first day of trading at $22.80, making Sverdlov—who owns more than 76% of the stock—worth $10.6 billion at the end of Thursday. 

Arrival went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called CIIC Merger Corp., making Sverdlov the latest in a long line of new SPAC billionaires that includes Chamath Palihapitiya ($1.2 billion), Geeta Gupta-Fisker and Henrik Fisker ($1.6 billion each) and Mat Ishbia ($9.7 billion). CIIG Chairman and ex-Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo said by video on Twitter that, in merging with Arrival, his SPAC found a disruptive company committed to “changing the rules of the game.”

The article was prepared based on the information: Forbes