Volta Industries is the latest EV stock going public through a SPAC.
Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg
Another electric-vehicle stock will trade publicly by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. This EV company, like many others, takes its name from a famous inventor. There seems to be no end of hot new EV startups to buy, or inventor names to take.
On Monday, Tortoise Acquisition II (ticker: SNPR) announced plans to merge with Volta Industries. Investors are excited, and Tortoise stock is up 31.9% to $17.01 in Monday morning trading.
Volta is named for battery inventor Alessandro Volta. Nikola Tesla, who harnessed alternating electric current, has inspired companies using his first and last name: Nikola (NKLA) and Tesla (TSLA). And Faraday Future is named for Michael Faraday, father of the electric motor.
Volta owns and operates EV-charging infrastructure, similar to EVgo, Blink Charging (BLNK) and Beam Global (BEEM). EVgo is also becoming a publicly traded company by merging with SPAC Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition (CLII).
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“Volta’s unique business model is poised to capture the vast consumer spending shifts that will accompany our society’s shift from carbon to electric,” says Volta CEO Scott Mercer in the company’s news release. “With the shift to electric mobility, consumers will expect to fuel where they go.” Volta is putting charging infrastructure in highly trafficked areas, believing it will help network utilization.
The deal values Volta at about $1.4 billion, but with the premarket jump in the stock price, Volta’s implied stock market valuation is roughly $2.2 billion.
Blink, for comparison, is valued at about $2.2 billion in the market. Beam is valued at roughly $500 million. EVgo will have a market value of roughly $5.5 billion, based on the 263 million shares outstanding after the merger closes.
Investors may be familiar with SPACs named Tortoise. Tortoise Acquisition I merged with commercial EV company Hyliion (HYLN) in 2020. Many EV-related companies have chosen to raise money by merging with SPACs in recent months. Fisker (FSR), Nikola, QuantumScape (QS) and Lordstown Motor (RIDE) are four other examples. All five companies saw their stock prices rocket after their SPAC mergers were announced in 2020.
EV stocks remain hot in 2021. Several EV stocks Barron’s tracks are up 44% year to date on average, after rising almost 600% in 2020. Both returns crush comparable numbers for the S&P 500. Investors seem convinced that EVs are the future of personal transportation, and now a plethora of startups are raising money to build EVs, charge EVs, and supply EV makers with parts.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
