Hindenburg, which accused Nikola, now does the same to Lordstown Motors

Shares of Lordstown Motors Corp fell as a lot as 23% on Friday after Hindenburg Analysis took a brief place on the electric-pickup-truck maker’s inventory.

“Lordstown is an electrical car SPAC with no income and no sellable product, which we imagine has misled buyers on each its demand and manufacturing capabilities,” Hindenburg mentioned.

Lordstown mentioned in January it had acquired greater than 100,000 non-binding manufacturing reservations from business fleets for its electrical truck.

“Our conversations with former workers, enterprise companions and an intensive doc overview present that the corporate’s orders are largely fictitious and used as a prop to boost capital and confer legitimacy,” Hindenburg mentioned on Friday.

Steve Burns, CEO of Lordstown, mentioned in a textual content message to Bloomberg that “we at all times said that pre-orders have been non-binding. That’s what pre-orders are.”

Burns denied the allegations made in Hindenburg’s report. Lordstown mentioned it’s going to present an in depth response in coming days, most likely at its March 17 earnings report, its first as a public firm.

In response to an assertion made within the report that manufacturing is three to 4 years off, Burns mentioned: “We’re on observe for betas this month and begin of manufacturing in September. Any assertion on the contrary is a lie.”

The quick vendor additionally took intention at Nikola Corp in September, accusing the electric-truck maker of fraud, resulting in the resignation of its founder, Trevor Milton. Nikola had publicly rejected all accusations.

In February, nevertheless, Nikola disclosed that the corporate and Milton had made a number of statements that have been partially or fully inaccurate, after an inside overview.

Following Hindenburg’s accusations, Common Motors and Nikola in November introduced a reworked settlement on a fuel-cell partnership, permitting the automaker to again out of taking a proposed fairness stake within the startup.

Lordstown‘s shares closed down 16.5% at $14.78.