A new report from short seller Hindenburg Research pointed to electric truck startup Lordstown Motors Corp., saying the company has misled investors about the strength of its truck orders and the progress it is making to get its first model into production.
Lordstown Motors Chief Executive Steve Burns, responding in an interview, said the report contained half-truths and lies, and that the short seller has a motivation to hurt the stock before the company reports its first quarterly update as publicly traded entity next week.
The startup takes its name from the city of Ohio, where the company bought an old assembly plant from General Motors Co. in 2019. As a result of this deal, GM acquired a small stake in Lordstown Motors. A GM spokesman declined to comment immediately.
The Wall Street Journal was unable to independently verify the allegations in Hindenburg’s report.
Shares in the Ohio-based company fell 16% after the report was released on Friday morning. Hindenburg – which last year targeted another electric truck startup, Nikola Corp. – disclosed in its latest report that it holds a short position in Lordstown Motors, which means that it will profit from the falls in the company’s share price.