Faraday Future shares gain on securing funding to start EV production

0
121
Faraday Future's luxury electric car FF91 is seen at the company's headquarters in Gardena

(Reuters) -Shares of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc rose about 8% to $1.17 on Monday after the company said it had raised enough funds to start production of its electric luxury car FF 91 Futurist in March.

Delivery of the sports utility vehicle, originally slated to start in late 2022, will now begin before the end of April, the company said on Sunday.

The stock has plummeted 92% since listing in July 2021 as the loss-making startup grappled with a boardroom battle, governance issues and a dwindling cash balance that upended its production plans.

Faraday plans to hold an investor meeting on Feb. 28 to vote on a proposal for increasing its outstanding stock, in a bid to raise financing in the future to support deliveries.

Major shareholder FF Top Holdings, which has an 8.4% stake, has agreed to support such a proposal at the meeting, it said.

Los Angeles-based Faraday has moved to save cash in recent months by slowing development of cars. It had $22.5 million in cash as of Nov. 30, down from $31.76 million at the end of the third quarter.

In November, the company named China head Xuefeng Chen as its chief executive officer after Carsten Breitfeld was asked to resign following a review of its performance since the listing. 

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Sriraj Kalluvila)

tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ150HZ-VIEWIMAGE