Lilium (LILM) Misleading Statements and Investor Losses Class Action

Lilium NV (LILM) is working on “an electric vertical take-off-and-landing (‘eVTOL’) aircraft, the Lilium Jet” which is intended to offer high-speed air transportation. On September 14, 2021 it was created from a merger of Qell Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company with Lilium GmbH. The complaint for this class action brings suit against Lilium and three of its corporate officers, alleging they made false or misleading statements about the company, causing losses to investors and violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The class for this action is all persons or entities who bought or otherwise acquired publicly-traded Lilium securities between March 30, 2021 and March 14, 2022.

On the starting date of this class period, the company filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that included a press release announcing the merger of Lilium and Qell.

The complaint quotes extensively from this press release, including the following statements: “The Lilium 7-Seater Jet has a projected cruise speed of 175 mph at 10,000 feet and a range of 155+ miles, including reserves” and “The proceeds from the transaction are intended to fund the launch of commercial operations, planned for 2024. This includes the finalization of serial production facilities in Germany, launch of serial production aircraft and completion of type certification.”

An August 11, 2021 proxy statement, as quoted in the complaint, anticipated “less than 60 seconds per mission in the pure hover phase and 30-60 minutes in cruise flight” so that “the associated increase in energy consumption in hover flight is around 5% of the overall mission energy budget.” This document also seemed to suggest a kind of approval by the European and American aviation authorities: “In 2018, our application for Type Certification of the serial aircraft was accepted by EASA and FAA…”

The complaint quotes extensively from these and other statements put out by the company about the battery, the aircraft’s anticipated abilities, and the company’s prospects.

However, on March 14, 2022, the complaint alleges that “market analyst Iceberg Research released a report regarding the company entitled, ‘Lilium NV—The Losing Horse in the eVTOL Race’ which detailed several alleged issues with the Company…”

These, as quoted in the complaint included that “none of Lilium’s demonstrators have flown for more than three minutes even after seven years of work.” The complaint alleges it also suggested that the aircraft would require 2.5 minutes of hover time which, consuming much of the battery’s power and potentially using up 66% of its 155-mile target range.

Another quotation alleged that the certification the company received “means little to nothing at all.” Also, the report, the complaint claims, cast doubt on statements about the capabilities of the batteries and the trustworthiness of those making them. Finally, it said that the company had only around 18 months of time before it would run out of money.

At the release of this report, the complaint alleges that the stock value fell by 34%.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Securities
Tags: False or Misleading Information, Investment Losses, Securities