(News Bulletin 247) – The hydrogen vehicle specialist has announced its placement in receivership, with an observation period of 6 months. In parallel, Hopium has signed a new agreement with its partner Atlas Special Oportunities to finance its activity over the next 12 months.

Given Hopium’s financial situation, the request to suspend its price on Thursday before the opening of the markets did not bode well. The reasons for such a request were detailed on Friday morning, in a new press release.

The hydrogen car manufacturer, sometimes compared to Tesla in its technological breakthrough approach, has announced its placement in receivership. This procedure aims to allow the continuation of the activity, the settlement of its debts and the reorganization of the company, within the framework of a continuation plan which will be presented at the end of a period of observation of 6 months, going until January 19, 2024. This period can be renewed for 6 months.

This procedure places Hopium under the protection of the Paris Commercial Court and debts prior to July 19 are thus frozen. “These debts will be repaid as part of the continuation plan that the company intends to submit to the court during the observation period,” explains Hopium.

It’s because the company spends a lot and doesn’t get any money into the coffers. And this was still the case in 2022. Operating expenses have indeed taken a worrying trajectory to jump by 9.4 million euros in 2021 and thus reach 24.9 million euros last year. Besides, the start-up has still not generated a single euro in turnover. The company’s balance sheet bears witness to the difficulties encountered by Hopium. As of December 31, 2022, the group posted negative equity of €10.4 million and cash of -€1.3 million, compared to €9.3 million and €4.9 million respectively for the previous financial year.

12 months of additional visibility

In this precarious financial situation, the group had thus set up in September 2022 financing in the form of bonds convertible into shares, – therefore dilutive for existing shareholders – with Atlas Special Opportunities. In the press release published today, Hopium recalls in this respect that “shareholders are therefore likely to suffer a loss of their invested capital due to a significant decrease in the value of the company’s share” when these bonds are converted into shares.

As part of this receivership procedure, Hopium indicated that it had also signed an amendment to this convertible bond financing agreement concluded with its financial partner. This amendment therefore increases the maximum gross nominal amount of the financing line to 25 million euros, i.e. an additional drawing capacity of a nominal amount of 3.5 million euros which is added to the 10 million euros not yet used by the car manufacturer.

With the agreement announced today, Hopium has increased its maximum financing capacity to 13.5 million euros, an amount which takes into account previous drawdowns. To date, Hopium has indeed made 4 drawings on its financing line for a total nominal amount of 11.5 million euros. In detail, 632 convertible bonds representing a nominal amount of 6.32 million euros have been converted into shares, and the rest, representing 5.18 million euros have not yet been converted.

As an indication, following the issue of these 1,150 convertible bonds, the participation of a shareholder holding 1% of the share capital prior to the issue, would be 0.711% on a non-diluted basis (calculation made on the basis of a number of shares as of July 19, 2023 of 14,189,444 shares, a share price closed on July 19, 2023 of 0.920 euro, and a creation of 5,770,301 shares).

This sum is intended to cover the company’s financing needs over the next 12 months, i.e. until July 2024. These funds will also be necessary for Hopium to develop its fuel cell up to the TRL6 technological level, i.e. at the demonstration level of a prototype or a system/subsystem model in a representative environment.

In early April, Hopium had indeed announced a new roadmap devoting its strategic refocusing on the development of its fuel cell. The company has thus planned to organize its activities around two poles: Hopium Technologies, which develops the fuel cell for the professional market, and Hopium Automotive, whose vocation is to develop a range of hydrogen vehicles for the general public, including the Hopium Machina.

A plummeting action

With this two-headed organization, the young shoot intends to generate its first income from 2025. It indeed hopes to launch the “pre-marketing of its battery-powered system from 2024 in parallel with its industrialization, and to begin the marketing phase in 2025”. For its part, the development of the Machina has been put on hold, the company having no longer committed to a release date, while Hopium planned to market it in 2025.

The quotation of the company, suspended Thursday on a last course of 0.90 euro, resumed Friday. But this resumption of quotation is proving complicated, the title Hopium is currently reserved for the fall after the announcement of the placement of the company in receivership. The company has lost more than 87% since the beginning of the year given the difficulty of Hopium to bring out its hydrogen car project for individuals.

Two years earlier, the situation was more radiant, the title was at its stock market zenith and had even reached a historic high of 42 euros, on June 29, 2021. A stock market surge which lived up to the hopes placed on this company described as the French Tesla. It had been introduced by direct listing at one euro on Euronext Access on December 23, 2020, before a transfer to Euronext Growth, the upper level on January 20, 2022.