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US electric truck builder: Nikola founder resigns

2020-09-21T08:29:28.160Z


The US manufacturer of electric trucks, Nikola, loses its boss in the middle of a dispute with the short seller Hindenburg. Trevor Milton has offered the board of directors to voluntarily resign. A successor has already been named.


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Trevor Milton: "Nikola is really in my blood and always will be, and the focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me"

Photo: REUTERS // Massimo Pinca

The US manufacturer of electric trucks Nikola has lost its boss in the middle of the dispute with the short seller Hindenburg.

Company founder and chairman

Trevor Milton

(39) approached the board and offered to leave office voluntarily, the company announced on Monday.

Stephen Girsky

(59) has been appointed

as his successor with immediate effect

.

The former General Motors vice has a long career in the automotive industry, in 2011 he was appointed head of the supervisory board at Opel.

The short seller Hindenburg accuses Nikola of fraud and nepotism.

It lures other automakers like General Motors into partnerships with false promises.

In mid-September, a report from Hindenburg Research became known in which the Nikola founder is described as a notorious liar.

The deal recently concluded with General Motors to build electric and hydrogen trucks together, valued at $ 18 billion, was a single fraud.

Nikola shares collapsed as a result of the report.

Trevor Milton was absolutely central to Nikola.

He had already given up the position of CEO when the company went public and instead headed the company as chairman of the board.

But Milton left no doubt about who runs the company.

Milton was a charming salesman who, among other things, got Bosch to join Nikola.

Milton's vision - repeatedly cleverly sold by him - meanwhile drove Nikola on the stock exchange to a valuation of 30 billion.

Girsky had brought Nikola on the stock exchange.

Investors hope that he will now ensure that Nikola focuses on implementing the announcements.

Even before the shortseller attacks, there had been doubts among investors that Milton would be able to carry out his plans.

The only problem for Girsky is that Nikolas' high rating was based almost exclusively on Milton's sales talent.

So far Nikola has little more to show than wild plans and some collaborations with suppliers and the car manufacturer GM.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week that it would be scrutinizing the hybrid truck developer, often referred to as the "new Tesla".

The authority wanted to examine the allegations raised by the short seller "Hindenburg Research", it said.

The Nikola share then lost more than 8 percent.

The Ministry of Justice also announced that it would look at the allegations against Nikola.

Nikola called the Hindenburg Report "false and defamatory".

The accusation that Milton had already proven to be a notorious liar in the time before Nikola - the company rejected as "irrelevant".

The shortsellers base their narrative of the simulated technological capacities on a video distributed in 2017 in a congress presentation by Nikola, in which a truck appears to take off - but actually only filmed as it is rolling down a hill.

"Nikola never claimed that the truck in the video moved of its own accord," the statement said.

The German automotive supplier Bosch, with whom a cooperation has been in place since 2017, also plays a major role in the dispute.

While Nikola boss Milton stated in a podcast in July 2020 that five demonstration vehicles with the most powerful known truck battery of 720 kilowatt hours would "just come off the assembly line in Ulm", a Bosch spokesman told Hindenburg in September that he was very different: " No, they're not finished yet. I don't know the exact year, but we're working on it. "

Nikola explains, citing Bosch, that the statements are out of context.

Bosch, like other early investors "who know exactly what kind of company it is," says Hindenburg, has parted ways with Nikola shares - Trevor Milton himself has secured himself financially in the event that he is fired .

akn / Reuters / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-21

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