Nikola TRE FCEV2
Thanks to Nicholas
Electric heavy truck maker Nikola will find out later Thursday whether its shareholders have approved its plan to raise money by selling more shares.
Nikola hopes to raise more capital to ramp up production of its new fuel cell-powered electric heavy-duty truck, which will hit the market later this month. But before it can sell additional shares to raise money, it must increase the total number of shares it can issue from 800 million to 1.6 billion. That move requires shareholder approval.
Nikola first presented the plan to its shareholders at its annual meeting in June. Although 77% of voters were in favour, there were not enough votes overall to approve the proposal. Nikola is based in Delaware, and under that state’s law, at least one-half of a company’s total outstanding shares of common stock must be voted in favor of a proposal for an increase in stock.
The company adjourned its annual meeting for a month to try to get more of its shareholders to vote. The meeting will resume at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, when Nikola will reveal whether the proposal has passed — or if it will be suspended again to try to get more shareholders to vote.
This isn’t the first time Nikola has had to adjourn a shareholder meeting to garner more votes for a proposal to sell new shares. Last year’s annual meeting was adjourned three times before Nikola won enough votes to increase the total number of shares outstanding from 600 million to 800 million.
Nikola said Wednesday it built 33 of its battery-electric Tre semitrucks in the second quarter and delivered 45 to its dealers. The dealers have sold 66 trucks to customers during that period, and a total of 99 since the beginning of 2023.
Nikola said on May 9 that it has suspended production of the battery-electric Tre to focus on launching the fuel cell version of the Tre, which has a significantly longer range. At the time, it said 12 fleet customers had ordered a total of 140 of the upcoming fuel cell trucks.
Nikola is building a network of hydrogen filling stations to support the upcoming fuel cell trucks. It said Tuesday that the California Transportation Commission awarded it a $41.9 million grant to build six of those stations in Southern California, in partnership with the state department of transportation.
Nikola is expected to report its second quarter results in early August.