Stock-Saudi-PIF
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund intends to acquire an additional 374.7 million shares Image Credit: Shutterstock

Dubai: Shares of Lucid, the luxury electric vehicle manufacturer backed by Saudi Arabia, dropped over 12 per cent in pre-market trading on Thursday.

This decline followed the company’s announcement that it expects a larger-than-anticipated loss for the third quarter, along with plans for a public offering of more than 262 million shares, as reported by Saudi news outlet Arab News.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is already the majority shareholder, intends to acquire an additional 374.7 million shares. PIF aims to retain its approximate 58.8 per cent stake in Lucid, as noted in the statement.

Since the beginning of the year, Lucid’s stock has decreased by 22 per cent.

Last week, however, the company reported that it surpassed market expectations for the third quarter by delivering 24 per cent more vehicles than predicted.

In total, Lucid delivered 2,781 vehicles in the third quarter, exceeding the estimated 2,242 units, according to data from investment research company Visible Alpha.

This marks the second instance this year that Lucid has sought funding from PIF; in March, the fund agreed to purchase $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in newly issued convertible stock through a private placement.