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Wall Street course:
prototype of the Sono Sion solar car
Photo: Sono
The Munich solar car developer Sono Motors launched on the US technology exchange Nasdaq on Wednesday. "Sono Motors is expected to generate around $ 135 million net through the IPO," said founder and CEO
Laurin Hahn
(27). The impending bankruptcy was thus averted: "Yes, the proceeds help us to secure our continued existence and help us to make additional investments for series production," said Hahn of the German press agency. In the prospectus, the company had warned that without the proceeds from the sale of the shares, there was a risk of running out of money in December.
Sono placed ten million common shares with a par value of 6 euro cents at a price of $ 15 per share. This corresponds to 15 percent of the company's shares. Hahn and the co-founder and CEO
Jona Christians
(28) still hold the majority of the voting rights. The proceeds minus costs are to be used to complete the next generation of prototypes.
The price of Sono shares rose to $ 43.98 by the time the New York market closed, an increase of 155 percent over the issue price.
The company has a market value of a good 2.75 billion dollars (2.43 billion euros).
At least a small piece of the stock market hype about electric cars is falling for the Germans, for example in the league of the Canoo company, which has been abandoned by BMW veterans.
The US company Rivian, which, like Sono, has not yet had any sales, was also launched on the Nasdaq a week ago and on Tuesday even overtook Volkswagen as the third most valuable stock corporation in the automotive industry with a market capitalization of up to 150 billion dollars (only surpassed from Tesla and Toyota).
Question mark about production in Sweden
"We decided to go public in the USA because investors there are very interested in technology companies," said Hahn. Manager magazin had already reported on the plans at the end of 2020.
Sono is developing a compact car called the Sion, the plastic body of which is equipped with around 250 solar cells. It is to be built in Sweden - in the former Saab factory in Trollhättan, which today belongs to NEVS, a subsidiary of the severely ailing Chinese real estate company Evergrande.
According to
NEVS boss
Stefan Tilk
, new investors are currently being sought and a large part of the workforce has been laid off. There is still no contract with Sono, Tilk told the newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" at the end of October. First Sono has to go public and collect money, "then we'll talk more". The preparations for series production from 2023 went according to plan, assures Sono.
According to the company, there are a good 16,000 pre-paid reservations.
In the past few years Sono caused a sensation with a crowdfunding campaign.
In January 2020, the company collected 53 million euros through down payments, share sales, donations and loans - a record for a European start-up.
Back then, the Munich-based company turned down financial investors in favor of convinced fans who bet on the promise of sustainability and an affordable, small car.
For example, the actress
Nora Tschirner
posted
"unpaid advertising out of conviction".
Hahn now said: "We are now a big step further in delivering the Sion to our community and realizing our mission to equip every vehicle with solar cells."
ak / dpa-afx