EV Motors, the parent company of the resurgent Spanish car brand Ebro and key European market partner of China’s Chery Motors, has prepared everything for its IPO which “will take place shortly” – before the end of the year – with a tactile campaign that will take place at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace, according to company sources and confirmed by BME to Europa Press.
The company, which will debut in the market segment reserved for SMEs -BME Growth-, will land at the initial price of 6.88 euros per sharewhich will make him start with a valuation of nearly 329 million euros.
The price established for each security is similar to 6.87 euros – 0.10 euros nominal and 6.77 euros issue premium – on which a capital increase of 40 million euros from qualified investors to ensure the viability of operations in the short term.
The informative document of the operation promoted by the president of EV Motors, Rafael Ruiz and the CEO of Ebro, Pedro Calef, among others, assures that the company will experience growth “very important” in sales over the next five years. The advisor for the operation will be DCM Asesores and Renta 4 Banco will act as liquidity provider.
With almost 48 million shares, EV Motors will land on the Spanish market with a higher stock market value, for example, than that of the American car manufacturer Nikola, although this will be significantly higher. below the capitalizations of European competitors such as the Swedish Polestar -more than 3,000 million euros-.
Revitalize a historic brand
Ebro was born in 1954, then owned by Motor Ibérica SA, after the nationalization of the Ford factories in Spain. It began its activities with the manufacturing of agricultural products produced in the factory in Noáin (Navarra) and then entered other segments such as transport vehicles – SUVs, trucks, buses… – and construction machinery .
The commercial brand It ceased its activity in 1987 after Nissan’s entry into the Barcelona free trade zone and after purchasing Motor Ibérica. The Asian group prioritized its models and even some, like the Ebro F Series van, were renamed under its brand, in this case the replacement model was the Nissan Trade;
The importance of Motor Ibérica for the Spanish economy during the dictatorship was such that the economic figures underline the role that the group played in the industrial development of Spain. In 1977, The turnover of the entire group was 33.405 million pesetas.of which 26,786 corresponded to sales on the domestic market and the rest to exports.
Business scheme
EV Motors will be the company that goes public, but behind it and now integrated into the business project is the Barcelona Technical Center (Btech), responsible for reindustrializing the old Nissan factory and his complex in Barcelona.
The arrival of the revitalized Spanish automobile brand on the capital market comes to fruition after the agreement signed in April with the Chinese manufacturer Chery for the creation of a A “joint venture” to manufacture cars in Spaintaking the area as a reference to begin its expansion throughout Europe.
Ebro intends to start operations in mid-November manufacturing in the Catalan capital of the S700 and S800 models, which will each have two versions, one gasoline and the other plug-in hybrid. Likewise, during the first part of the year, the automobile group will start producing the S400 model and by the end of 2025 it wants to have a “reduced size” version.
This factory will initially have a direct assembly line at the Barcelona factory for “re-industrialize the territory as quickly as possible” in order to complete the manufacturing in Spain of pre-assembled vehicles imported from China. At the same time, the group will work on the creation of a complete vehicle production chain.
Concerning the commercial aspect, Ebro plans to have up to 30 outlets by the end of this year and 75 by the end of 2025 distributed throughout Spain.
Potential growth
Returning to the IPO operation, EV Motors says it estimates a very significant growth in total sales, which would evolve from the 36 million euros expected at the end of 2024 – based on the start of vehicle production -, to a maximum of 1,918 million euros expected for 2029.
Given the EBITDA margin, in the short term this is expected to produce negative results in 2024, exceeding costs relative to sales.
However, from subsequent years – to the extent that economies of scale in terms of costs, implementation and market penetration allow – a positive balance will be recorded until reaching the total of 250 million euros before the end of the decade.
These forecasts are mainly based on the production and sales of vehicles, with an expectation of production and sales of around 1,400 vehicles in 2024, to exceed the 30,000 units sold already in 2025. In the following years, we envisage accelerated growth which will allow it to exceed 130,000 units sold in 2029.
Compared to debt, the equity ratio amounted to 4.6 times and EV Motors warns that at the end of 2023 it had liabilities of 102 million euros, 40 of which come from the purchase of Nissan’s assets in Barcelona. Likewise, Chery – through the company O&J Automotive Netherlands – has a purchase option on 9.9% of the EV engines which can be made effective during the three years following the listing, presumably until ‘at the end of 2027.
At the same time, the brochure warns that Chery could withdraw an investment for next year “around 30 million euros” in EV Motors if the company “fails to achieve a sufficient occupation volume of the production capacity of the free zone factory” and other agreements such as subscribing to the capital increase or public licenses, “ideally, before December 31”. .
No dividend policy
The EV Motors brochure also specifies what the group’s initial dividend policy will be. The company specifies that it “does not have a remuneration policy” “specifically defined”. Until now, the Barcelona Technical Center (Btech) was the only company in the EV Motors group to distribute dividends in the last three years.
In 2024, a dividend distribution for worth more than a million euros which is awaiting payment.
