The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Denver-based Spruce Power Holding Corporation, the successor to XL Fleet Corp., for misleading investors about revenue projections that topped $1 billion within three years of going public. XL Fleet, which provided hybrid electric vehicle systems for commercial fleet vehicles, went public through a 2020 merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
According to the SEC’s order, XL Fleet publicly claimed to have a more than $220 million 12-month sales pipeline, which purportedly backed its near-term revenue projections of up to $75 million and longer-term projections of up to $1.4 billion. The order finds that the company’s projections, which were featured in public filings ahead of the SPAC merger, were misleading because the sales pipeline consisted almost entirely of speculative opportunities, including sales to potential customers with whom XL Fleet had little or no contact; customers to whom XL Fleet could not legally sell its products; and stale sales opportunities that had not been updated within the company’s systems. The order also finds that XL Fleet claimed to have applied a historical conversion rate to its sales pipeline as part of its revenue projections, when, in reality, the conversion rate did not support the company’s projections.
Source: SEC.gov | SEC Charges Electric Vehicle Co. for Misleading Revenue Projections Ahead of SPAC Merger
