General Motors is eyeing a separate stock listing for its Cruise self-diving unit that received an eye-catching $11.5 billion valuation last month, Bloomberg reported Friday.
“The largest U.S. automaker is researching possibilities including a public offering of shares, listing a separate tracking stock to reflect its value, or spinning off the unit, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private,” the news site reported, noting that a decision could be years away, depending on the speed of Cruise’s development.
In late May, Cruise nabbed a $2.25 billion investment from Japan’s SoftBank tech fund, which valued the unit at $11.5 billion. The investment will come in two stages of $900 million immediately and another $1.35 billion once Cruise’s autonomous vehicles are ready for commercial deployment, GM said. It will also invest $1.1 billion of its own money in Cruise when the deal closes.
Cruise was purchased by GM in March 201 6 for $581 million, when it had just 50 employees. At the time, the San Francisco-based startup had received more than $18 million in venture-capital funding at a valuation of roughly $90 million
Last September, Cruise said its first self-driving car was ready for production, and that it had built 50 cars — accompanied by human drivers — for test rides near its Silicon Valley headquarters. The cars will be produced at GM’s plant in Orion, Michigan using parts from the Chevrolet Bolt.
Commercialization, according to GM President Dan Ammann and Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt, will arrive in 2019.
Shares of GM spiked about 1.5% on the news. GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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