The troubled Dutch bus manufacturer Ebusco has announced it has found a new partner in Chinese battery maker Gotion. The partnership is a "proposed strategic" one. Gotion is a longstanding battery supplier to Ebusco.
Gotion is considering to cement the partnership with an equity participation in Ebusco. To that end, Ebusco will offer Gotion excess shares, i.e. shares for which no rights have been exercised in the rights issue that Ebusco has announced today. This participation will reinforce Ebusco’s equity base. If there are insufficient shares left (because of a high take-up in the rights issue), Ebusco will propose a separate share issuance to Gotion at an upcoming General Meeting of Shareholders, further strengthening Ebusco’s balance sheet. Gotion will also be invited to propose representation on Ebusco’s supervisory board. Both companies started their collaboration in 2018. Gotion, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is focused on power battery technology research, development and innovation. According to the press release by Ebusco the partnership envisages mobilizing Gotion’s advanced battery technology, allowing the further development of Ebusco’s lightweight buses with a substantially longer range battery, cooperation in relation to the expansion of Ebusco’s maritime
offering and supporting Ebusco in the international expansion of the lightweight bus in Asia. Gotion will support Ebusco to explore the possibilities to introduce the lightweight Ebusco 3.0 buses to the markets in Asia with external bus manufacturers. This collaboration is in line with its strategy to license out its Ebusco 3.0 lightweight technology outside the European market. Furthermore Ebusco announced at the same time the launch of its EUR 36 million Rights Issue. For each share the shareholder receives 3 Rights Issue. Founder Peter Bijvelds has shown interest via his Peter Bijvelds Holding Erp B.V. for EUR 5.0 million, of which EUR 3.5 million through a conversion of the shareholder loan, provided in August 2024. Also other main shareholder re participating by converting loans into shares. Ebusco states that: "In the event the Company is not able to raise EUR 36 million in gross proceeds from the Rights Issue, the Rights Issue will be withdrawn. The Rights will then expire worthless, and any Rights exercise will be ignored".