Lilium's continued existence depends on the Spac IPO

The air cab start-up has to adapt its balance sheet to international IFRS rules. In doing so, it adds an addendum: Its continued existence is only secured until 2022 if the IPO works in the third quarter. There are also corrections to the start-up loss.

Lilium aims to go public via Spac. It is now becoming clear how important this step is for the air cab start-up: Following a correction in the company's balance sheet for 2019, the condition for Lilium's continued existence and financing beyond December 2022 is an IPO in the third quarter of this year. This was confirmed by Michael Andersen, Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the start-up, to the Welt am Sonntag"If the IPO goes ahead, this reference will no longer apply."

Lilium is planning its IPO via Spac Quell Aquisition, which is already listed on the US stock exchange. In the course of this, the start-up had to adapt its balance sheet to international IFRS rules. As a result, the start-up loss for 2019 had to be corrected from 42.8 million euros to 75.4 million euros in addition to the note on continued existence. As the start-up told Welt am Sonntag, this process made it clear that there was less leeway for two balance sheet items.

Lilium, which was founded six years ago, recently announced ambitious plans: the start-up wants to make its air cabs commercially viable by 2024, with 90 models to be produced. Since a 2020 financing round of over 35 million euros, Lilium has been valued in the billions, making it one of Germany's unicorns.