Hydrogen truck maker Nikola Motors faces Nasdaq delisting for second time as share price stays below $1

Nikola Motors has been issued with a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock exchange for a second time in eight months as its share price has stayed below $1 for more than 30 consecutive business days — and seems unlikely to recover in the immediate future.

This means the Arizona-based maker of hydrogen and battery trucks is now in breach of the trading platform’s listing rules. If its share price does not rise above the $1 threshold for 10 consecutive trading sessions within 180 days, it can be kicked off the exchange, although it could petition for an extension.

Nasdaq had previously issued a delisting notice to Nikola at the end of May last year, but its share price quickly recovered, even rising to a high of $3.395 on 3 August, but it was languishing at around $0.67 at the time of publication.

Delisting would effectively relegate the shares to penny stocks, forcing them to be bought and sold over the counter (formerly known as “pink sheets”), making them harder and less likely to be traded.

Nikola told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August last year that it had accumulated losses of $2.4bn since start-up, and had continuing doubts over whether the company can remain a going concern over the following 12 months.

“We believe that we will continue to incur operating and net losses each quarter until at least the time we begin to generate significant margin from our trucks, which may not happen,” the company noted in its filing from 4 August.

“We have determined... there is a substantial doubt that we will have sufficient funds to satisfy our obligations through the next twelve months from the date of issuance of this Quarterly Report.”

The simplest way to avoid delisting would be a reverse stock split — essentially consolidating the existing number of shares into fewer, higher-priced shares. For example, if every ten shares were consolidating into a single new share, the share price would instantly rise to $6.50.

However, artificially increasing the stock price in this way does not tend to be perceived positively by the market, as they are often seen as a sign of a failing company.

“Nikola is committed to increasing stockholder value and has been focused on the production and sales of our Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck, the re-introduction to the market of our Class 8 battery-electric truck and our HYLA hydrogen infrastructure solutions. We remain confident in our mission of pioneering solutions for a zero-emissions world and look forward to the future, which includes maintaining our Nasdaq listing.”

The company is due to reveal its 2023 financial results on 22 February.