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Cars charge at an EVgo station.
Dreamstime
Electric-vehicle charging company
EVgo
recently priced a public offering of shares below the market price, which sent shares sliding. EVgo’s largest shareholder bought $25 million of stock in the offering.
EVgo’s (ticker: EVGO) first-quarter report on May 9 featured a narrower-than-expected loss while sales came up short. Shares dropped 6% that day. A week later, on May 17, EVgo stock dove nearly 20% when the company announced it would sell $125 million of stock in a public offering, priced at $4.25 a share—substantially lower than the previous day’s close at $5.73.
Evgo noted in its regulatory filing that an affiliate of its controlling stockholder intended to buy 5.9 million shares in the offering. The company’s largest shareholder is an entity controlled by LS Power, an energy generation and transmission company.
On May 22, EVgo Member Holdings, a limited liability company affiliated with LS Power, went ahead with buying 5.9 million shares for $25 million, which was the $4.25 per-share offering price. EVgo Chairman David Nanus is the president of LS Power’s private-equity business, and a member of LS Power’s management and investment committees.
Nanus and LS Power didn’t respond to a request for comment on the stock purchase.
LS Power owns 195.8 million EVgo Class B shares, giving it more than 70% of the voting power.
The Class B shares don’t trade publicly, and are convertible on a one-for-one basis into EVgo’s publicly traded shares, which LS Power could then sell.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
