Rimac Aims To Go Public Next Year In $6 Billion Deal

Jun. 17, 2021 10:26 AM ET byMartin Bigg Electric Vehicles /12 Comments

Rimac could also soon own 55 percent of Bugatti.

Rimac has come a long way since the Concept One debuted back in 2011. Ten years on, the Croatian company is now one of the most respected electric car makers in the world and supplies electric supercar platforms to other manufacturers including Pininfarina.

Seeing the company's potential, Porsche bought a stake in the company, which recentlyincreased to 24 percentas part of a €70 million (approximately $83 million) investment. As the company continues to grow, Rimac is reportedly planning to go public in 2022 with a valuation worth around 5 billion euros ($6.06 billion) according to a report by Manager Magazin.

The German publication also claims that Rimac will soon be acquiring Bugatti as part of a joint venture with Porsche, with Rimac reportedly owning a majority 55 percent share and Porsche owning 45 percent.

This supports comments made by VW Group's Herbert Diess back in March that Rimac and Porsche are planning to联合to take over Bugatti. If the deal goes ahead, it will make sense for Rimac to use its experience to co-develop an all-electric successor to the Bugatti Chiron.

"We're considering different options, but it hasn't been decided which direction we'll go in," a Rimac spokesperson told Reuters when asked about going public.

"The future of Bugatti is an issue that will be decided on a group level," a Porsche spokesperson added. Over the past few years, several automakers have gone through Initial Public Offerings. Since splitting from FCA in 2014 to go public, Ferrari's market value has more than tripled to a whopping $30 billion. Tesla also overtook Toyota last year as themost valuable car company in the worldworth $209 billion.

Last month, Rimac generated a lot of publicity with the reveal of theNevera, the production version of the C_Two. With four electric motors producing a colossal 1,914 horsepower and 1,740 lb-ft of torque combined, the Nevera will rocket from 0-60 mph in just 1.85 seconds. It also unofficially became thefastest production car in a quarter-milewith a time of 8.62 seconds at 171.7 mph, beating Bugatti.