NEW YORK, Feb 24 — Shares of Lotus Technology closed up two per cent in their Nasdaq debut yesterday, recouping earlier losses, after the luxury electric car maker completed its merger with a blank-check acquisition company backed by private equity firm L Catterton.
The American Depositary Shares began trading with the new ticker “LOT” and ended at US$13.80 after falling as low as US$10.12. About 190,000 shares traded. The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) closed at US$13.51 on Thursday (February 22).
Lotus Technology was valued at about US$7 billion in the deal with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp (LCAA), the SPAC backed by L Catterton. It is part of British sports car maker Lotus Group, which is jointly owned by Chinese automaker Geely and Malaysia’s Etika Automotive.
The listing came at a time when EV makers face scrutiny in capital markets. Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group tumbled on Thursday after their earning reports pointed to the impact of slowing EV demand on their ramp-up plans.
Lotus Technology is headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and produces cars through a partnership with Geely. It designs, develops, and sells luxury lifestyle EVs under the British brand Lotus, which was founded in 1948.
“At this point in time, being able to access the capital market through the IPO… is an acceleration for Lotus to expand globally,” said Qingfeng Feng, chief executive officer of Lotus Tech.
Like other SPAC mergers, over 90 per cent of LCAA shareholders redeemed their shares, leaving the trust’s account with roughly US$11 million. Typically, a stock is volatile if only a small number of shares are publicly available.
Lotus Technology has launched two EV models, including its first fully electric sports utility vehicle, Eletre. The company said the model started delivery in China in 2023 and followed in the UK and the European Union. It is expecting to deliver cars in the United States later this year.
The company secured US$880 million in financing before its merger with LCAA.
“We saw what these guys were trying to do to it, essentially building a global luxury business, which is very different from a typical EV company.
“And so we thought that our partnership would be able to help them do that well,” said Chinta Bhagat, Co-Chief Executive Officer of LCAA.
— Reuters
