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Nikola Buys Romeo Power for 11% of Battery Maker's SPAC Valuation
- Supplier agrees to be rescued by its biggest customer
- Acquirer will provide $35 million to help Romeo close deal
A Nikola Tre battery-electric heavy duty truck at a factory in Ulm, Germany.
Photographer: Andreas Gebert/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Nikola Corp. will acquire Romeo Power Inc. for a sliver of what the battery maker was worth when it merged with a special purpose acquisition company less than two years ago.
The all-stock transaction between two manufacturers that went public via blank-check deals in 2020 values Romeo Power at about $144 million, according to a statement Monday. That’s only about 11% of the roughly $1.33 billion value at which California-based Romeo Power agreed to merge with a SPAC.