The US Nikola logo is represented during an event organized to present the new battery battery trucks with battery battery with battle and hydrogen of CNH in partnership with US Nikola Event in Turin, Italy, December 3 2019.
Massimo Pinca | Reuters
DETROIT – Nikola Corp. – An automatic startup which was once a favorite of analysts of Wall Street and retail investors – filed protection against the balance sheet after having omitted to secure a buyer or raise additional funds to maintain operations.
Nikola said on Wednesday that he planned to continue an auction and sales sales process, pending approval from the court. The company said it had around $ 47 million in cash to finance its bankruptcy activities, implement the sales process and release chapter 11.
“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have had an impact on our ability to operate,” said Steve Girsky, CEO of Nikola. “Unfortunately, our best efforts were not sufficient to overcome these important challenges, and the board of directors determined that chapter 11 represents the best possible way to follow in the circumstances of the company and its stakeholders. “”
The tender procedures proposed, if they were approved by the court, would allow interested parties to submit binding offers to acquire Nikola assets, bought free of charge and away from Nikola’s debt and certain responsibilities.
The deposit marks the final of the fall of the years of the company based in Phoenix. At its peak in 2020, Nikola was more valued Ford engine At $ 30 billion, signed an agreement of several billion dollars with General Motors And was considered the ultimate in car startups to make public through reverse mergers and acquisition companies for special purposes.
Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Corp., arrived at the court in New York, Monday September 12, 2022.
Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty images
The fall of the company took place over the years, inflamed by scandals and lies involving its founder and former CEO and president Trevor Milton. The fast, energetic and disgraced executive was found guilty of wire fraud and securities fraud in 2022 for deceived investors in Nikola operations and zero emissions technology.
The controversies were made public for the first time by the seller in short research Hindenburg after the agreement with GM who included the automaker of Detroit taking a 2 billion dollars in the startup.
The main products of Nikola are fully electric and fuel cells with electric semi-combustible batteries, which it began to produce in 2022. In the third quarter of last year, the company had produced only 600 of vehicles since then . Many of these vehicles have been recalled due to defects, costing the automaker for tens of millions of dollars.
Since his passage from the president to the CEO in 2023, Girsky has advanced Nikola, including his production of zero-emission trucks, but the capital of the company has decreased.
Nikola warned investors at his conference in the third quarter that the company had only enough money to support its activities in the first quarter of 2025 but not beyond. Nikola said $ 198 million in cash to end in the third quarter.
Nikola’s stock
Girsky on the call in October said that Nikola “actively spoke to many different partners who appreciate what we do and appreciate what we have built.”
Girsky, a former bank analyst and general manager of GM, took Nikola Public through his Spac in June 2020. It was a catalyst for more electric vehicle companies to make public through SPAC.
Similarly to Nikola, most of them, if not all, failed to meet their initial expectations. Many were the center of federal surveys, scandals and executive upheavals.
Nikola’s actions have exchanged less than $ 2 per share since early December. Taking into account an inverted stock division of 1 for 30 last year, reports FactstSet, the closing price of all Nikola’s time was nearly $ 80 in June 2020.