Lion on the way to the New York Stock Exchange

Electric bus and truck maker Lion Electric Company will take the path of the New York Stock Exchange to finance its growth, which will include the addition of a production plant in the United States and probably projects to increase its presence in Saint-Jérôme, where its head office is located.

This is a net amount greater than half a billion US dollars that will be collected by the Quebec company founded in 2008, which announced Monday a merger with Northern Genesis, a “specific acquisition company” whose shares are already available. The initial market value of the new entity, to be called Lion, was valued at US $ 1.9 billion.

Existing shareholders will continue to control approximately 70% of the new entity, which, according to Lion’s president and founder Marc Bédard, will allow it to retain its Quebec identity. A subsidiary of Montreal conglomerate Power Corporation is currently Lion’s majority shareholder with a 44.2% stake. This will increase to 31.4% once the transaction with Northern Genesis is completed.

The Saint-Jérôme company currently has 300 vehicles on the road and offers seven models of electric trucks and buses. She believes she can deliver 650 next year. Mr. Bédard is thinking big, since the company is targeting 18,400 units in 2024 as well as sales of US $ 3.6 billion.

Even if the annual capacity of the plant located in the Laurentians is estimated at 2,500 units, it is imperative for Lion, which employs some 450 people in the province, to position itself in the American market, explained Mr. Bédard. “We want to produce there to ensure a local presence and save on delivery costs, for example,” he explained.

And if Lion wants to build a production plant in the United States, his big boss said that the province should benefit from the expansion plan, since everything indicates that a battery manufacturing plant is about to be set up in Saint -Jérôme, where the municipality offered land for this purpose. The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, confirmed that discussions aimed at ensuring that Quebec welcomes the battery manufacturing plant that Lion wishes to build were underway.

Watch video

–

–