QEV, the company that will reactivate the Nissan plant, will be listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange

The Catalan electric vehicle company QEV Technologies is preparing to go public. This company, led by Joan Orús, is the promoter, along with other companies such as B-tech, of the D-Hub consortium, winner of the tender to reindustrialize the Nissan factory in Zona Franca, together with the logistics operator Goodman. In a statement, QEV announced this Thursday that it is finalizing a merger with Spear Investments, a company listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Euronext) that will provide it with the necessary financial resources to carry out its plan to become a major operator within the emerging electric mobility sector. QEV's goal is to sell 16,000 electric vehicles by 2027.

Spear Investments is a listed company that has no activity. Its mission is to raise capital from investment partners and then merge with a high-growth company, which thus goes public quickly. In the jargon of the financial sector, these corporate vehicles are known as SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Company). If the operation is formalized, QEV would be the second Catalan electric mobility company to go public through a SPAC, as this same formula was used by Wallbox to debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The investor who promoted Spear Investments is Jorge Lucaya, a veteran banker expert in mergers and acquisitions and large corporate operations ---he is a regular advisor to Grupo La Caixa--- founder of the advisory firm AZ Capital. The other promoting partner of Spear is STJ Advisors, a London-based financial consultancy founded by fellow banker John St. John, who has worked at entities such as Nomura, Dresdner Kleinwort and Commerzbank and Lehman Brothers. According to Lucaya, the decision was made to merge Spear with QEV Technologies after "an intense and exhaustive selection process," as they were looking for a company headquartered in Europe, with "solid fundamentals," a short-term profitability path, and that met a series of criteria in terms of innovation, limited technological risk, high growth, and "solid environmental credentials."

After El Confidencial advanced the news, Lucaya has acknowledged that merger talks "are very advanced" and that the forecast is to be able to sign an agreement before the end of July. According to them, the pact being negotiated contemplates that 100% of QEV's current shareholders will continue to be part of the capital of the new joint venture through an exchange of shares. Among these partners, the Barcelona-based investment group Inveready stands out, through the company GAEA Inversión, which has been QEV's main shareholder since 2021. "Inveready has extensive experience in IPOs," they point out, recalling the operations led by MasMovil and Atrys.

For Joan Orús, CEO of QEV, this "business combination demonstrates the strength of the project" and the confidence of investors in the business plan outlined by the Catalan company, which has been developing "high-performance" electric vehicles for third parties for ten years. In 2020, QEV launched its own division dedicated to the design and manufacture of urban electric vans and buses with the Zeroid brand and with a B2B business model, that is, designed not so much for sale to private drivers but to companies and fleet operators. According to the company, it has delivered 250 vehicles so far, but it has an order book that will increase this figure to 1,000 vehicles by the end of the year, with a projected turnover of 60 million euros in 2023.

QEV explains that with the capital it will obtain thanks to the merger with Spear, it will be able to ensure the fulfillment of its business plan, whose objective is to sell some 16,000 electric vehicles by 2027. "The implicit valuation of the company stands at 209 million euros and, so far, more than 20 million have been committed." In addition to the money already invested by Spear shareholders, the SPAC is expected to be capitalized with the entry of new private investors and with additional funds that Inveready will invest.

"The potential merger and listing on the Amsterdam Euronext will allow us to take an important leap in sustainable mobility in Spain and Europe, and, furthermore, the operation will further validate the reindustrialization process of the Zona Franca de Barcelona," Orús assured.

QEV Technologies and B-Tech won the tender to operate the former Nissan factory with the promise of employing a thousand workers and producing, in three years, 100,000 vehicles, of which 60,000 would be of the Zeroid brand ---driven by QEV--- and 40,000 by B-Tech, the company promoting the recovery of the Ebro brand. Specifically, Zeroid wants to produce a range of five models of electric vans aimed at last-mile delivery companies and an urban bus.

In parallel, Ebro wants to manufacture an electric pick-up that it presented at the Automobile Barcelona Show and a small van (minivan) also 100% electric. This company has also initiated the procedures to finance itself through an IPO, but its intention is to do so in the Spanish alternative stock market, BME Growth.