Difficulties follow one another for the American start-up Lordstown Motors, which is developing an electric pick-up: a few days after warning that it could run out of money in the coming months, she announced on Monday the immediate departures of her boss and of its financial director.
Read also: Short of money to produce an electric truck, Lordstown Motors falls on Wall Street
She also released a report from a special committee of the board admitting that the company had made
"inaccurate"
statements
about some pre-orders. The action of the company, which aims to start production of its vehicle in September at a former General Motors plant in Ohio, fell in the wake of nearly 19% on the New York Stock Exchange. The group was accused in March by the investment company Hindenburg Research of having
"misled investors about demand and its production capacities"
.
After investigating, the committee refuted most of Hindenburg's accusations, including the group's technical inability to start production of a vehicle on time.
But he agreed that Lordstown Motors had on several occasions announced pre-orders from organizations when in fact they were companies not intending to place orders directly, obviously not having sufficient resources to finance them or having simply expressed an
“interest”
.
Without making a direct link with the publication of the findings of the report, the group immediately after announced the resignation of its founder and director, Steve Burns, and its chief financial officer, Julio Rodriguez.
The next Tesla
This is the latest setback for Lordstown, who had already warned on June 8 that he did not necessarily have enough money available to produce a vehicle on a commercial scale and could therefore have to go out of business in the next few years. month. The company then also assured to be raising additional funds to avoid such a situation. Taking advantage of the enthusiasm of some investors looking for the next Tesla in the electric vehicle sector, Lordstown had nevertheless managed to raise $ 675 million in October when it entered Wall Street via a SPAC, a financial instrument that allows a company to go public while avoiding certain regulatory constraints. But the cash doesis not necessarily sufficient in the face of higher than expected spending on research and development and the amounts needed to start large-scale production of vehicles, Lordstown noted in early June.
While waiting to find new leaders, Angela Strand has been appointed executive chairman of the board of Lordstown Motors. Already a member of this management body, she heads a consulting firm.
"We remain committed to achieving our production and marketing goals, to complying with the highest operating and performance standards and to creating shareholder value
," she said in a statement.
The group also made various appointments on Monday, including Becky Roof as interim CFO and Jane Ritson-Parsons as COO.
“The change in leadership is an important first step in moving the business forward,”
said Adam Jonas, automotive analyst for Morgan Stanley.
"We felt that it had become complicated for the company to raise new capital with a management team that it was generally considered that it would not take the company to the next stage of its development"
, he noted in a note.