From the boom of summer 2020 to the hypothesis of forced delisting. It is a rapid metamorphosis, that of Nikola, a manufacturer of electric trucks that risks being canceled by the Nasdaq. The Phonix-based firm, which was also a partner of Iveco for four years, said it received a delisting notice on May 24 because its share price has been below a dollar for the past 30 days. Now the EV maker has until Nov. 20 to comply with the Nasdaq’s minimum price rule, which requires the stock price to be above $1 for 10 consecutive business days. Otherwise the title will be delisted.
We were talking about the rapid financial metamorphosis of this company: Nikola’s shares reached 65.90 dollars. in 2020, when the SPAC was led by Trevor Milton, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, later indicted for federal securities fraud. Today, the stock fluctuates just above 50 cents, and the bleeding continued with the news of the possible delisting.
It must be said that the Nikola case is quite indicative of a sector – that of the “native” producers of electric vehicles – which (apart from Tesla) has clashed somewhat against the effects of a hype, of the surge in materials primes and an economy grappling with stories of interest rates and inflation. And now he’s paying for it.
Lordstown Motors, another American electric car maker, received a similar delisting notice in recent weeks. Notice which, coupled with the failed deal with Foxconn, prompted Lordstown to issue a stock split.
Many of these companies have been attracted, over the past three years, by the capital they can access through public markets. And the use of the SPAC as a financial instrument seemed to work, at least initially. Now the financial winter seems to have arrived for companies like Nikola and other SPACs like Arrival, Bird and Canoo.