A new report from short seller Hindenburg Research followed the start-up of Lordstown Motors Corp. electric trucks, saying the company misled investors about the strength of its pre-orders for trucks and the progress it is making towards introducing its first model in production.
Lordstown Motors chief executive Steve Burns said in an interview that the report contained half-truths and lies and that the short seller had the motivation to hurt the shares before the company reported its first quarterly update as a listed entity this week. future.
The startup is named after Ohio, where the company acquired a former General Motors Co. assembly plant. in 2019. As a result of this agreement, GM acquired a small stake in Lordstown Motors. A GM spokesman declined to comment immediately.
The Wall Street Journal could not independently verify the allegations in Hindenburg’s report.
Shares of the Ohio company fell 16 percent after the report was released Friday morning. Hindenburg – which last year targeted another start-up of electric trucks, Nikola Corp. – revealed in its latest report that it holds a short position in Lordstown Motors, which means that it will benefit from the lower price of the company’s shares.