Ford sold most of its stake in Rivian last year

DETROIT – Ford Motor liquidated most of its stake in the electric vehicle maker last year Rivian Automotiveaccording to the Detroit automaker’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Ford sold 91 million shares of EV startup in 2022 according to the application. The company said the total proceeds from the sale of Ford shares were about $3 billion, a substantial gain compared to its $1.2 billion investment in Rivian.

Ford still owned about 11 million of its original 101.9 million Rivian shares as of the end of last year. The company declined to comment on plans for the remaining shares, which continue to make the automaker one of the company’s largest shareholders, according to FactSet. Rivian also declined to comment.

Ford first invested in Rivian in 2019, before the electric car maker went public. Both companies said at the time that Ford would build an electric vehicle based on the “skateboard” platform now used in the Rivian R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV. Despite former Ford CEO Jim Hackett’s enthusiasm for the deal, these plans never came to fruition.

But as a result of this initial investment, Ford became one of the company’s largest shareholders after Rivian’s 2021 IPO, with a 12% stake.

Ford said it sold 25.2 million Rivian shares in the second quarter, generating about $700 million in total revenue. In the third quarter, the company sold an additional 51.9 million shares for about $1.8 billion, according to earlier documents.

Hackett’s successor, Jim Farley, signaled that Ford would likely sell its stake, but it was unclear when the automaker plans to sell shares and exit Rivian.

Ford’s unrealized profit/loss was $8.3 billion in 2021 and a $968 million loss in 2022, hurting the automaker’s bottom line last year.

Shortly after Rivian’s blockbuster IPO in November 2021, the company’s stock hit an all-time high of nearly $180 a share during a Wall Street craze for electric vehicle startups, which led to early or pre-earnings companies being overvalued.

Rivian shares are currently trading near $20 a share after several missed targets and slower-than-expected growth in auto production at the plant in Normal, Illinois. The company is valued at approximately $18 billion.