Foxconn invests one other $170M into EV SPAC Lordstown Motors • TechCrunch

Taiwanese producer Foxconn is rising its funding in EV startup Lordstown Motors by shopping for $170 million in widespread inventory and newly created most well-liked shares.

As soon as the deal is full, Foxconn will maintain all of Lordstown’s excellent most well-liked inventory and 18.3% of its widespread inventory on a pro-forma foundation. Foxconn may also have the precise to 2 board seats, the businesses mentioned Monday.

The extra funding comes a yr after the electrical light-duty truck producer bought its 6.2-million-square-foot Lordstown, Ohio manufacturing facility to Foxconn. As a part of that $230 million deal, which included a direct funding of $50 million,  Foxconn agreed to assist Lordstown Motors manufacture its Endurance pickup truck. Manufacturing of the electrical pickup truck started in September 2022.

This newest deal, particularly the $100 million direct most well-liked inventory funding, replaces the three way partnership funding introduced final yr by Foxconn and Lordstown Motors. The funding will happen in tranches and is topic to a evaluation by the Committee on International Funding in the USA.

An preliminary closing is predicted to be held later this month. Foxconn will buy about 12.9 million shares of widespread inventory at a purchase order worth of $1.76 per share, leading to whole proceeds of $22.7 million. Foxconn may also purchase 300,000 shares of most well-liked inventory at $100 per share, leading to whole proceeds of $30 million. The remaining shares of most well-liked inventory might be bought by Foxconn as Lordstown Motors achieves based mostly sure milestones. After receiving approval from CFIUS, Foxconn will purchase a further 26.9 million shares of widespread inventory at a purchase order worth of $1.76 per share, leading to whole proceeds of about $47.3 million.

“Since asserting our first transaction with Foxconn greater than a yr in the past, it has been our goal to develop a broad strategic partnership that leverages the capabilities of each corporations. Foxconn’s newest funding is one other step in that route,” Lordstown Motors Govt Chairman Daniel Ninivaggi mentioned in a press release.

The businesses mentioned the contemporary injection of capital might be used to fund growth and design actions for a brand new electrical car program in collaboration with Foxconn, a manufacturing firm finest identified for making Apple’s iPhone.

Lordstown Motors is one among a number of corporations that went public over the previous two years by merging with a particular objective acquisition firm DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., with a market worth of $1.6 billion.

The corporate struggled nearly from the get-go, its demise fueled by a damning report by short-seller agency Hindenburg Analysis that accused the EV SPAC of deceptive traders on each its demand and manufacturing capabilities. Hindenburg disputed that the corporate booked 100,000 pre-orders for its electrical pickup truck, a stat shared by Lordstown Motors in January 2021.

The corporate later minimize its forecast and CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez resigned, only a few weeks after was reassuring traders of the corporate’s shiny future. The missteps continued and the U.S. Securities and Change Fee and the Division of Justice opened investigations into the EV startup.

Even after receiving a $400 million lifeline in from a hedge fund managed by funding agency Yorkville Advisors, Lordstown had its struggles, together with shedding GM as an investor.

Its cope with Foxconn has been its finest likelihood at survival whilst provide chain points restrict manufacturing of its EV pickup.