Harley-Davidson shares rose by the most in 13 months after the company said it would publicly list its electric motorcycle unit through a merger with an empty test firm, capping a busy year for mergers reverse entry in the electric vehicle industry.
The LiveWire division will merge with AEA-Bridges Impact Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company focused on sustainability and is expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “” LVW,” the company said in a statement Monday. The combined company is expected to have an enterprise value of about $1.77 billion, and LiveWire will rake in about a dollar of net proceeds.545 one million words of the deal, according to the statement.
“Today’s announcement is a historic milestone with LiveWire set to become the first publicly traded EV motorcycle company in America,” Jochen Zeitz, HarleyCEO of, said in the statement. “This transaction will allow LiveWire to freely fund new product development and accelerate its go-to-market model.” Zeitz will retain Acting CEO of LiveWire for a period of two years after the transaction closes.
Harley rallied 15% to $42.43 at 9:38 a.m. in New York after surging as much as 18%, its highest intraday level since late October 2020. The stock didn’t enjoy the same gains as stocks. of used car manufacturers such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. yes after revealing electrification plans. Harley is essentially unchanged this year until December 10, while GM increased 52% and Ford more than doubled. AEA-Bridges rose 4.2% to $10.27.
The SPAC deal marks a strategic shift for Harley, which had planned to turn its flagship electric motorcycle into an independent in-house brand as part of a plan to revitalize the company. Zeitz’s Hardwire turnaround plan calls for investments of $190 million to $250 million annually in part to develop Harley’s electrification technology.
LiveWire was founded as a separate division of Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson in 2019 and focuses on urban markets in North America and Europe, with plans to expand into Asia.
While SPAC deals have been common this year, especially in the electric vehicle industry, those deals have typically been of entire startups, not units of larger companies. . Earlier this year, Ardagh Group SA merged its metal packaging business with SPAC. Polestar, an electric car manufacturer founded by Volvo Zhejiang Auto Corporation and Owner Geely Holding Group Co., has agreed to go public in a reverse merger.
Harley will retain an equity interest in the new LiveWire of approximately 74%; Shareholders of AEA-Bridges will own about 17%, while the founders and other partners will own about 4% each.
