Cenntro becomes public company after merger

Cenntro becomes public company after merger (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Daily Record) — Electric vehicle company Cenntro Electric Group Ltd., which is opening a Jacksonville plant, became publicly traded by completing a merger on New Year’s Eve.

New Jersey-based Cenntro merged with an existing public company based in Australia called Naked Brand Group Ltd., which operated an online retail site for Frederick’s of Hollywood products.

The company divested the Frederick’s business and was renamed Cenntro after the merger, with Cenntro’s owners now holding a majority of the stock.

“Today’s transaction provides us with the working capital necessary to support our substantial backlog and to finance our plans to scale production in 2022 through new facilities in Jacksonville, Florida and Dusseldorf, Germany,” Cenntro CEO Peter Wang said in a Dec. 31 news release.

“We expect our recently announced U.S. based 100,000 square-foot full-capacity assembly facility in Jacksonville, Florida to provide a strong foundation for our long-term growth,” he said.

Jacksonville City Council in December approved $450,000 in tax incentives for the commercial electric vehicle company to open its first U.S. manufacturing plant and create 34 jobs.

Cenntro estimated 2021 revenue of $25.3 million with more than 1,500 vehicle sales, but it projects that to grow to $2.1 billion from 74,800 vehicle sales in 2023.

Cenntro continues to trade on Nasdaq under Naked Brand’s ticker symbol of “NAKD.”