Energy Vault shares drop 19% in first day on NYSE
Westlake-Village based Energy Vault began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell on Feb. 14, but its shares struggled, dropping 18.7% on the first day as the market as a whole was down slightly.
Energy Vault, which uses a gravity-based system to store and release energy generated by renewable sources, began trading after closing its merger on Feb. 10 with a special purpose acquisition company, Novus Capital Corporation II. The combined now trades under the symbol NRGV.
Shares of the stock opened at $11.50 but dipped to $9.39 at close.
Major U.S. indices all dropped by a fraction of a percentage point during the day, with the NYSE Composite down 0.8%, the S&P 500 down 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.5%.
Energy Vault raised approximately $235 million in gross proceeds from going public, including $195 million from a PIPE, or public investment in public equity, led by strategic partners Korea Zinc and Atlas Renewables as well as investors from Adage Capital Partners, SoftBank Investment and more, the company said in a news release.
Energy Vault’s existing stockholders will own about 68% of the post-merger company, led by Energy Vault CEO Robert Piconi at 9.9%, according to Novus’ SEC filings.
Energy Vault develops gravity-based energy storage systems that the company says are more durable and efficient than other methods to store energy, such as batteries. The system uses cranes that lift heavy bricks to store renewable energy and then lower them to release it. One of its systems is connected to Switzerland’s national power grid.
The company also raised $107 million in a Series C funding round in September.
