Fox E-Mobility has provided an update on its plan to revive the Mia electric car. Financing this venture is “a huge challenge” – a plan for restructuring is due to be rubber-stamped at the AGM in January. The financial situation is tight.
As the company wrote in a recent statement, it is dependent on fresh capital from outside. “The maintenance of solvency and thus the going concern assumption depends on financial support and capitalization from external capital providers,” Fox E-Mobility explained.
Earlier this year, the company had unveiled the final design of the Mia 2.0, with first prototypes still on track for 2022. Now, the construction of a concept vehicle is planned for 2023. Subsequently, a prototype is to be manufactured for series production. At the beginning of the year, 2024 was still mentioned as the start of series production – the company is currently not providing any more up-to-date information on this.
However, it remains to be seen whether the concept car will be built in the coming year as planned – because another important decision is due in January: Fox E-Mobility’s management is working on a restructuring plan to be presented to shareholders at the annual general meeting scheduled for 31 January 2023. The planned restructuring measures include, among other things, the conversion of the legal form of the company into an Irish public limited company (and thus the relocation of the headquarters to Ireland), which will remain listed on the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange with a future secondary listing on Euronext. The new corporate structure is to be implemented by April 2023.
The management probably hopes that the restructuring will improve access to external capital providers. If this does not succeed, the “maintenance of solvency” is severely endangered, as described at the beginning.
The company has also published its audited annual figures for the 2021 financial year. These show a deficit of 3.8 million euros. Equity remains at around 69 million euros. No figures are yet known for 2022. However, Fox E-Mobility states that expenses have been reduced through cost-cutting and savings measures compared to the original planning.
“With the MIA 2.0, we are developing an innovative electric car for individual passenger transport and for logistics applications. The demand for corresponding solutions is unbrokenly high,” says Philippe Perret, the CEO of Fox E-Mobility. “Financing this project is a huge challenge, which we are tackling with determination. The development of the restructuring plan and the scheduling of the Annual General Meeting are important steps on this path.”