Nikola will soon find out whether its shareholders have approved its plan to sell more stock
- Nikola is hoping to sell stock to raise additional cash.
- Before it can sell new stock, it needs shareholder approval to increase its total shares outstanding.
- The company will reveal Thursday whether it has secured enough votes to proceed.
Electric heavy-truck maker Nikola will find out later Thursday whether its shareholders have approved its plan to raise money by selling more stock.
Nikola hopes to raise more capital to help ramp up production of its new fuel-cell-powered electric heavy truck, set to launch later this month. But before it can sell additional stock to raise money, it needs to increase the total number of shares it's authorized to issue to 1.6 billion from 800 million. That move requires shareholder approval.
Nikola first put the plan to its shareholders at its annual meeting in June. While 77% of those who voted were in favor, there weren't enough total shares voted to pass the proposal. Nikola is incorporated in Delaware, and under that state's law, at least half of the total outstanding shares of a company's common stock must be voted in favor for a share-increase proposal to pass.
The company adjourned its annual meeting for a month to try to get more of its shareholders to cast votes. The meeting will resume at 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, at which time Nikola will reveal whether the proposal passed – or if it will adjourn again to try to get more shareholders to vote.
This isn't the first time that Nikola has had to adjourn a shareholder meeting to drum up more votes for a proposal to sell new stock. Last year's annual meeting was adjourned three times before Nikola won enough votes to raise its total shares outstanding to 800 million from 600 million.
Nikola said Wednesday that it built 33 of its battery-electric Tre semitrucks in the second quarter and delivered 45 to its dealers. Its dealers sold 66 trucks to customers during the period, and a total of 99 since the beginning of 2023.
Nikola said on May 9 that it suspended production of the battery-electric Tre to focus on launching the fuel-cell version of the Tre, which has significantly longer range. At the time, it said that 12 fleet customers had ordered a total of 140 of the upcoming fuel-cell trucks.
Nikola is working to build out a network of hydrogen refueling stations to support those upcoming fuel-cell trucks. It said on Tuesday that the California Transportation Commission had awarded it a $41.9 million grant to build six of those stations in southern California, in collaboration with the state's department of transportation.
Nikola is expected to report its second-quarter results in early August.