Electric-vehicle startup Fisker prepares for possible bankruptcy filing
Troubled electric-vehicle startup Fisker has hired restructuring advisers to assist with a possible bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter. Fisker, which recently warned that it risked running out of cash this year, hired financial adviser FTI Consulting and the law firm Davis Polk to work on a potential filing, the people said. The car company reported last month that it had $273 million in sales last year and over $1 billion in debt.
Fisker last month issued a so-called going-concern warning that there was “substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business. The company said it was negotiating to raise additional cash from investors and looking for a new manufacturing partner in the U.S. Fisker and FTI Consulting declined to comment, while Davis Polk didn’t immediately respond.
The Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company in late February delayed the release of its full financial results for last year, because it lacked a sufficient number of experienced accounting professionals, according to a regulatory filing. Fisker is one of a cohort of once-highflying EV startups that went public at the beginning of the decade, many through special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that helped fast track their market debuts. Their rise also coincided with a surge of investor enthusiasm for companies that could potentially follow in Tesla’s footsteps and break into the highly competitive auto industry.
Instead, the companies have struggled with the complexities of mass manufacturing and, more recently, with sputtering demand for battery-powered vehicles from American car buyers. Fisker delivered its first vehicles to U.S. buyers in June, just as worrying signs of a slowdown in sales growth were
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