A rebounding stock price has brightened the skies over Honeoye Falls-based Hyzon Motors Inc.
The global supplier of high-power fuel cell technology on Thursday received a formal notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC that Hyzon had regained compliance with Nasdaq’s $1-per-share minimum bid price requirement. The requirement was met on July 25, the 10th consecutive trading day when the closing bid price of the firm’s common stock was more than $1.
Hyzon was notified that “the matter is now closed” and its stock will continue to be listed and traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
The threat of delisting has hung over Hyzon since early February, when Nasdaq informed the company that it was not in compliance with a listing rule that requires “timely filing of all required periodic financial reports.” Hyzon appealed the determination, which kept the company’s stock (Nasdaq: HYZN) trading on the exchange.
On May 31, faced with another reporting deadline to avoid delisting from Nasdaq, Hyzon filed its belated 2022 annual financial statement. A little more than a week later, the company filed its financial report for the first quarter of 2023, as required by Nasdaq.
Hyzon launched in 2020, based in Honeoye Falls at the former General Motors facility that had closed eight years earlier. In February 2021, it announced plans for a nearly $8 million expansion there, assisted by Empire State Development, Monroe County and Greater Rochester Enterprise.
Serious questions about Hyzon emerged less than a year later, when the company was targeted in a short-seller report that targeted Hyzon’s financial statements and claimed vehicle sales in China. In the wake of that report, the company was hit with class-action shareholder litigation and an SEC inquiry into the allegations against it. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York also launched an investigation.
In its annual report for 2022 filed with the SEC, Hyzon listed nearly a dozen shareholder suits brought against the company and current and former officers and directors.
Hyzon also has posted tens of millions of dollars in losses. For the year ended Dec. 31, Hyzon reported a net loss of $54.5 million on $3.7 million in revenue, compared with a loss of $16.9 million on negligible revenue in 2021. From its startup on Jan. 21, 2020, through the end of that year, it lost $14.4 million.
The company noted in the SEC filing that it is “an early-stage growth company (that) expects to continue to incur net losses in the near-term.”
In the first quarter, ended March 31, Hyzon posted a loss of $31.3 million, versus a loss of $6.4 million the year before. It reported no revenues for the quarter.
Hyzon is not short on cash, however. As of March 31, cash and short-term investments were $209 million, down roughly $46.3 million from the end of the fourth quarter of 2022.
At the time Hyzon filed its annual report in late May, its stock was trading near the bottom of its 52-week range of 45 cents to $5.14. After its first-quarter results were released, the stock began to trend upward—and then in mid-July, it surged. This morning, it opened trading at $1.85 a share. However, it remains a far cry from its all-time high of $17.80 on Feb. 8, 2021.
For nearly a year, Hyzon has been led by Parker Meeks, who joined Hyzon as chief strategy officer in June 2021 and was named president and interim chief executive officer after CEO and cofounder Craig Knight was ousted by Hyzon’s board. In March, Meeks was named permanent CEO.
Under Meeks, the company has pursued a number of initiatives to strengthen its operations. He also has worked to build a new management team.
“Hyzon has made tremendous progress over the past year to restructure our operations and focus on the development and commercialization of our proprietary fuel cell technology,” Meeks said in a statement when the company released its first-quarter results. “We now have a strengthened leadership team, streamlined vehicle offerings and a rationalized geographic footprint to focus on three core markets.”
Hyzon is exiting the commercial market in China. Its geographic focus now is on the U.S., Europe (Germany, Austria and Netherlands), and Australia-New Zealand.
Investors will be looking at Hyzon’s second-quarter results—slated for release on Aug. 8—for further evidence that the company is finally emerging from a troubled period.
Paul Ericson is Rochester Beacon executive editor. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].