LONDON (BLOOMBERG) – Polestar, the electric car-maker controlled by Volvo Car and its owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has agreed to go public through a merger with blank-cheque company Gores Guggenheim, according to sources.
The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information was private. The combined company would be valued at about US$20 billion (S$27 billion) including debt, one of the sources said.
The terms or timing of a final agreement could still change, the sources said.
A representatives for Gores Guggenheim declined to comment. A spokesman for Polestar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Polestar is a rival to Tesla and electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors. Bloomberg News reported in June that the company was in talks with Gores Guggenheim. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Sunday that the two were nearing an agreement.
The company’s second vehicle and first all-electric car, the Polestar 2, started production in March at Geely’s plant in Luqiao, China. In September last year, the automaker said it would put another car, the Polestar Precept, into production. In June, the company said the Polestar 3 – a sports utility vehicle – will be built in Ridgeville, South Carolina, in the United States, in a plant opened by Volvo Cars in 2018. Gores Guggenheim, led by chairman Alec Gores and chief executive Mark Stone, is sponsored by affiliates of Gores Group and Guggenheim Capital. It raised US$800 million in a March initial public offering.