Lotus EV division valued at $5.5bn in public listing

Lotus will be publicly listed for the second time in its history on Friday when shares in the EV-focused Lotus Technology division will be listed on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange.

The listing will value Lotus Technology at $5.5 billion (£4.3bn) and hands the company $880 million (£694m) raised by early investors in the run-up to listing.

Lotus will take over the listing of L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (spac) created to find a company wanting to list. LLCC looked at 80 companies before settling on Lotus, a company filing said.

The listing comes amid falling investor confidence in pre-profit EV companies. Volvo – also owned by Geely - said early in February that it would stop funding Polestar, following the EV brand’s poor stock performance since listing in 2022. Also this month, Renault said it would cancel the planned IPO of its Ampere electric spin-off division.

Lotus was first taken public in 1968 by founder Colin Chapman, before it was bought by General Motors in 1986.

The company is selling investors a story of growth surrounding its rollout of premium EVs built in China and sold there, in Europe and in the US. 

Lotus is predicting sales of more than 76,000 cars by 2025, thanks to the Lotus Eletre electric SUV, Lotus Emeya electric saloon and Emira petrol sports car.

The launch of a smaller electric SUV will add a further 80,000-90,000 units, the company has predicted. It has a 4% profit margin target for 2025.

The listing was delayed from a target date at the end of last year before being given the go-ahead following a vote by LCAA shareholders on 2 February.

Lotus was also waiting for a green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which gave permission on 8 February, it said in a recent filing with the US's Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lotus Technology originally pushed for a valuation of $12bn (£9.5bn) but instead settled on $5.5bn “due to growing concerns around volatility of global capital markets and the general economic outlook”, according to the filing.

Lotus Technology is separate from the sports car maker, with more ownership resting with Geely, rather than Malaysia’s Etika Automotive – the parent company of Lotus’s previous owner, DRB-Hicom. Etika owns 26.5% of Lotus Technology, compared with 49% of Group Lotus.