Embattled Australian DC fast-charging company Tritium is facing a new battle to retain its Nasdaq Stock Exchange listing after another slump in its share price and a new warning that it does not currently meet the minimum requirement of having 1,100,000 publicly held shares on issue.
The news is just the latest blow in the travails of Tritium, which has closed its Australian factory, cut staff numbers and announced a major share consolidation in a bid to hold on to its precious Nasdaq listing.
Despite continued supply agreements and order backlog, Tritium has failed to live up to its initial promise, with consistent financial troubles coupling with reliability concerns serving to undermine the company’s stability.
Tritium has been struggling to keep its place on the Nasdaq Stock Market since October of last year when it received a non-compliance letter stating that its share price had fallen below the minimum bid price requirement of $US1.00 for the previous 30 days.
A month later, suffering a share price which had fallen by 90 per cent, Tritium announced announced a restructure that included plans to close its Brisbane manufacturing facility and slash staff numbers.
Things went from bad to worse, however, in the coming months, with more letters from the Nasdaq moving the company closer towards delisting.
Tritium announced a 200 to 1 share consolidation plan to boost its share price in late February, which it confirmed at the end of March to take effect on April 2.
Despite its best efforts, however, Tritium announced late last week that it had received a further notice from the Nasdaq stating that it “does not currently meet the minimum 1,100,000 publicly held shares required for continued listing on Nasdaq”, a rule known as the Public Float Standard.
In response, Tritium announced that it plans to discuss the Public Float Standard with Nasdaq at a scheduled hearing with the Nasdaq Hearings Panel, at which it intends to demonstrate a plan to regain compliance and “take all necessary steps for its shares to remain trading on Nasdaq until such time as the Nasdaq Hearings Panel makes a final determination.”
Tritium’s share price fell another 10 per cent in trading on Monday and have fallen by nearly half in the last five trading days.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.