• ELMS is the first SPAC-born EV maker to file for bankruptcy
• Company struggled after top executives resigned in February
EV startup Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc (NASDAQ: ELMS) late Sunday said it plans to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection less than a year after it went public via a merger with a blank check company.
The Michigan-based commercial electric vans maker said in a release that interim CEO Shauna McIntyre and its board of directors decided to liquidate its assets after a “comprehensive review of the company’s products and commercialization plans” turned up no better option for stakeholders.
The company went public in late June last year amid a wave of SPAC deals that listed several EV startups and became the first of those post-SPAC EV makers to declare bankruptcy.
Electric Last Mile’s stock plunged nearly 67% to 17 cents a share in New York. It was down almost 93% so far this year, to 51 cents, as of Friday’s closing price.
McIntyre has been serving as the interim chief executive since February after founder and Chairman Jason Luo and then-CEO Jim Taylor left the struggling startup.
The resignations came after an internal investigation found that the EV-maker’s past financial statements were unreliable.
ELMS said the departure of the executives, and a related investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), had made it “extremely challenging” to secure additional funding.
Picture Credit: South China Morning Post
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