Nikola’s Bankruptcy Sale Nears Critical March 17 Deadline

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Nikola CEO Steve Girsky and Chief Financial Officer Tom Okray are facing a March 17 deadline for receipt of a stalking horse bid for the bankrupt truck maker.

A stalking horse bid is an initial offer for assets, meaning it sets a bar other bidders cannot undercut. It was a tactic the administrators of Yellow Corp. adopted in the early days of that company’s bankruptcy, before switching to an auction of individual assets.

Nikola’s assets are less easily divisible, particularly given the intertwined nature of its 691,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Coolidge, Ariz., and its Hyla refueling business.

Efforts by Nikola to find a white-knight suitor faltered after a months-long search, leading to the Feb. 19 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Per court filings, an “international vehicle manufacturing company” walked away from buying the company in December, apparently hoping for a better deal through a bankruptcy sale. When filing for court protection, Nikola said it would seek to sell its assets.

If no suitable bids arrive by the stalking horse deadline, court documents indicate that an auction will take place April 7. The court said it would make public the results of that auction on April 10.

Nikola customers are optimistic a deal will go through.

“I’m still quite confident that they’ll eliminate some of the early debt they took on and that someone will come in and scoop them up,” Duncan Trucking Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Brad Bayne told Transport Topics in a March 12 interview. Phoenix-based Duncan is the parent company of Rialto, Calif.-based 4Gen Logistics, which operates 15 Nikola hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks.

“I’m hopeful,” said Jim Gillis,