Australia’s electric truck success SEA advances plans for US public listing

SEA Electric, the Australian-founded electric truck and van technology company now based in Los Angeles, says it is “well advanced” in moves towards a potential public listing.

The move was first reported in an article published on Monday by the Los Angeles Business Journal, where Mike Menyhart, SEA Electric’s President for the Americas and Chief Strategy Officer, was quoted as saying that the company is exploring the possibility of going public in the future.

SEA Electric president Tony Fairweather confirmed the details of the article in a brief email to The Driven.

“It all depends on the market conditions and our needs — we’ve got plenty of capital for the next 12 months, and we’re really focused on growth, and if the right opportunity presents itself, we will go for it,” Menyhart was quoted as saying.

“We are in a growth mode, so we are not profitable.

“We’re focused on growth, and we fully anticipate going down a path to becoming a public company in the next six to 12 months, and we expect to be profitable in 2023. … We have real revenues; we have real trucks on the road. The working capital requirements will be a little bit of a drag until 2023 when we become EBITDA positive.”

After moving from Australia to the United States in January 2020, SEA Electric has gone from strength to strength. According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, the company has so far raised approximately $US75 million ($A100 million), including a $US42 million ($A55 million) private placement equity financing round in March of this year.

“The financing allows SEA Electric to accelerate our sales efforts and grow our backlog as we explore options to seek a public listing in the United States this year,” Fairweather said at the time.

The funding round included Canadian electric motor company Exro Technologies, which also came on board as a SEA Electric strategic partner as well as shareholder.