Stricken electric van-maker Arrival in fresh rescue funding bid

A British-based company which had ambitions of becoming a global pioneer in electric vehicle manufacturing has picked a new set of advisers to help it secure rescue funding.

Sky News understands that Arrival, which is facing the prospect of being delisted from New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange, is working with Jefferies to keep it afloat.

The appointment of a team of US-based investment bankers extends a sale or refinancing process which had been underway with Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring adviser, during the last few months.

A&M has been working on contingency plans for Arrival, which is based in the UK, to call in administrators.

A sale or long-term financing solution is said to be urgent, although bondholders have been considering whether to provide sufficient funding to see it through an expedited sale process, according to one debt investor.

According to a filing last week, Arrival’s shares faced being delisted by 9 November after it failed to submit its 2022 annual report with US financial regulators.

It said it would request a hearing to appeal against the decision.

Arrival was one of a slew of electric vehicle companies which capitalised on a wave of investor demand during the last technology boom to raise money at multibillion-dollar valuations.

Sky News previously reported that it needed at least $500m of additional funding to fund it through to break-even.

Arrival went public in March 2021 through a combination with CIIG Merger Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up by Peter Cuneo, the former Marvel chief executive.

On the day its shares began trading, it was valued at about $5.4bn (£4.2bn).

The company was backed by blue-chip global investors including BlackRock, which injected nearly $120m into the business in 2020.

Hyundai and Kia, the Korean carmakers, and the delivery service UPS were also early backers of the company.

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It said it would cash in on demand for electric vehicles by targeting commercial customers rather than ordinary motorists.

In late 2021, it unveiled a prototype of a car designed to be used by ride-hailing companies such as Uber Technologies.

None of its vehicles have yet made it into commercial production, and it has been forced to slash hundreds of jobs, including many of its senior management team.

At one point it employed 2,800 people, according to a presentation seen by Sky News.

It has since faced a number of winding-up petitions tabled by stakeholders.

Arrival’s stock has plummeted by more than 94% in the last year, and at Wednesday’s close it had a market capitalisation of little more than $16m.

In a bid to secure new capital, it struck a second SPAC deal, with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp V, which would have injected hundreds of millions of dollars more into the company.

The agreement between the two parties was terminated in July.

Arrival did not respond to an emailed enquiry.