San Pedro, CA – December 17: The first two zero-emissions electric vans, from an order of 100, are delivered from Nikola Corporation to Total Transportation Services at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Friday, May 17. December 17, 2021.
Brittany Murray | MediaNews Group | beautiful pictures
DIGEST – Nikola Corp. will require shareholder approval to further dilute the company’s stock by adding 200 million new shares to raise capital as the company scales up production of its first electric guitar.
The company said the increase – from 600 million to 800 million shares – was in the “best interests” of the company and its shareholders, according to Nikola .’s Authorized Statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
If shareholders do not approve the increase at its annual meeting scheduled for June 1, the company said it “may have limited ability to raise capital to support its business goals.” us and could lose important business opportunities, including to our competitors, which could adversely affect our financial performance and growth.”
Based on Monday’s Nikola stock price of about $7 a share – down from a 52-week high of $19.52 – the company should raise about $1.4 billion in capital from the company. additional shares. Shares of Nikola fell as much as 8.6% in intraday trading on Monday. The stock is down about 30% in 2022.
Nikola has about 414 million shares outstanding, according to FactSet.
Chief Financial Officer Nikola Kim Brady last month said the company makes electric vehicles, recently settle a federal investigation accused it of misleading investors, will “closely monitor equity markets and raise additional capital as appropriate in 2022.”
Nikola has a cash balance of $522 million at year-end and expects to spend between $295 million and $305 million in 2022. It also reported having about $436 million of available liquidity through two equity flow.
Trevor Milton, founder of the Nikola Corp. center, leaves federal court in New York, U.S., on Thursday, July 29, 2021.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
Last month, Nikola expected to generate $90 million to $150 million in revenue by 2022 when it delivered its first 300 to 500 battery-powered pickups — called the Nikola Tre — to customers. .
Nikola will also require shareholder approval for executive compensation, which includes an annual salary of $1 per executive employee, according to Nikola Chairman Stephen Girsky. However, executives are being compensated with stock bonuses worth millions of dollars.
For example, Nikola CEO Mark Russell’s total compensation is $5.6 million in stock bonuses in 2021, according to the filing. Russell owns 11.7% of the company’s shares, including shares co-owned with ousted founder Nikola and chairman Trevor Milton, according to the filing.
Milton resigned from the company in September 2020 after short seller Hindenburg Research accused him of false statement about the company’s technology to attract investors and partnerships.
Milton is scheduled to appear in court April 4 in Manhattan for allegedly defrauding investors during that company’s IPO, among other things.
– by CNBC Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
