Cars and Drivers

Hyliion Completes SPAC Deal, Begins Trading Under Its Own Name

Paul Ausick

Published: October 2, 2020 12:16 pm

Following a one-day delay, Hyliion Holdings Corp. (NYSE: HYLN) completed its reverse merger combination with Tortoise Acquisition and began trading Friday morning. The combination between the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and the maker of drive trains for electric trucks was expected to close Thursday.

The delay occurred over a dispute with one large investor that objected to the organization of the company’s board of directors.

The SPAC, which came public at $10 in April, once traded as high as $58.66 following the announcement of its combination with Hyliion. The shares have taken a beating in the past few days, however, trading down nearly 10% Thursday, after dropping 7% on Wednesday.

As a result of the deal, Hyliion begins its new life as a publicly traded company with about $560 in fresh capital. A private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal raised $325 million, and Tortoise invested $235 million.

None of the capital raised in the PIPE offering was passed out to the investors, making this combination different from the reverse merger that created electric/fuel-cell truckmaker Nikola Corp. (NASDAQ: NKLA). In the Nikola deal, PIPE investors had only a 30-day lockup period on shares. Once they began selling, the share began tumbling. Hyliion’s lockup period is six months for early investors. That should help steady the share price.

The less good news is that, just like Tortoise, Hyliion’s shares continue sinking. The stock closed Thursday at $44.91 and opened Friday at $39.99. Shares have trimmed the loss a bit but still traded down 9.4% at $40.68 in the noon hour.