Electric lion will be able to escape the three collective actions that have been brought against it since last year, learned The newspaper.
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The manufacturer of buses and electric trucks obtained, in June, receipts which release it from these prosecution.
Lion ex-action who hoped to recover part of their losses thanks to the requests for collective actions filed against the company will therefore remain hungry.
“Complaints submitted within the framework [des demandes d’actions collectives] are specifically excluded from the ordinance made by Pinsonneault judge in June, ”confirmed to Journal Lawyer Éric Préfontaine, associated with the Osler cabinet, which represents the former lion’s accounting auditors, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.
Bus in the Lion Electric company, in Saint-Jérôme, in November 2024.
Photo Martin Chevalier
Deception?
Two requests for collective shares were filed against Lion last year.
A third was tabled in February by New York law firm Scott+Scott. She alleges that Lion “misleads investors” as to her “financial health”, “which has led to significant financial losses for shareholders”.
Recall that the value of the action of Lion, which was listed at the Toronto and New York scholarships, went from $ 25 in June 2021 to 35 ¢ when the insolvent company was sheltered from its creditors, in mid-December 2024.
For the moment, the co-founder and former CEO of Lion, Marc Bédard, and the ex-president of the company, Nicolas Brunet, are still targeted by the three requests for collective actions.
Several ex-leaders of the manufacturer are also defendants in the request for collective action filed in February. Among these, we find Richard Coulombe, who has been a lion finance chief since 2023, and Yannick Poulin, who was the head of the company for more than nine years.
All the former administrators, including Pierre Wilkie, Pierre Larochelle, Michel Ringuet and Pierre-Olivier Perras, are also appointed in the request filed in February.
Audience next month
The ex-administrators and lion leaders, however, wish to obtain from the Superior Court of receipts which would allow them not to have to defend themselves against the requests for collective actions.
“There will be a complete debate on September 3 before judge Pinsonneault as to whether the individual defendants (former leaders or lion administrators) should also benefit from a receipt,” said Mr.e Prefontaine.
“As ex-actaries cheated, we are obviously against a complete receipt [pour les ex-dirigeants et administrateurs]”, Reacted to Journal Julien Fiset, from the Invest-Lion group.
Recall that lion activities linked to school buses were bought for $ 6 million by a group of investors including, in particular, Vincent Chiara (Mach Group), Pierre Wilkie and Luc Sabbatini.
The Quebec government has lost around $ 180 million in the company.
