Ebusco raises 36 million euros in capital increase
The CEO of Ebusco, Christian Schreyer, who has been the new sole CEO since September, said: “This capital raise is essential for the continuation of the company and I’m pleased to get the chance to move forward and further restore the company. The coming months will remain challenging, but with the dedication and determination I have seen at Ebusco, I’m confident we are able to improve our performance.”
A statement like this from the new boss makes it clear just how precarious the situation is at Ebusco. Further evidence of this are the conditions that Ebusco had to accept for the participation of its own battery supplier Gotion High-Tech in the capital increase: the Chinese company will each appoint a representative to the Supervisory Board and the Management Board and will also receive a kind of pre-emptive right – Ebusco may only issue new shares to other parties if Gotion renounces.
The battery supplier was allocated shares worth 1.8 million euros, although a subscription obligation of 5.0 million euros was agreed – the remainder is to be paid in 2025 during a further capital increase. Founder and former CEO Peter Bijvelds has invested via his own holding company, as have the existing shareholders ING Corporate Investments Participaties and VDVI. They are “converting their shareholder loans of EUR 3.5 million, EUR 1.0 million and EUR 0.5 million, respectively, in equity at the Issue Price.” In addition, Bijvelds and ING exercised subscription rights totalling EUR 1.5 million and EUR 1.61 million respectively.
In the issue, 43,853,031 new ordinary shares were issued at a price of EUR 0.8209 per share. “The net proceeds and net cash proceeds from the rights issue amount to EUR 34.5 million and EUR 27.7 million respectively, with the difference resulting from the conversion of the shareholder loans into equity and the offsetting of outstanding liabilities to Gotion,” the company wrote.
Ebsuco recorded a loss of over 60 million euros in the first half of the year alone. Although the company has over 1,600 electric buses on its order books, it was only able to deliver 98 vehicles in the first two quarters. The delays in delivery have already led to Ebusco losing orders. In September, the CEO duo, which consisted of founder Bijvelds and Michiel Peters, was dismissed and replaced by Christian Schreyer as sole CEO. Bijvelds and Peters had failed to achieve the aspired economic turnaround.
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