As filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 14, 2022.
Registration No. 333-
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
Claude Dornier Straße 1
Bldg. 335, 82234
Wessling, Germany
Telephone: +49 160 9704 6857
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)
Roger Franks
C/O Lilium Aviation Inc.
2385 N.W. Executive Center Drive, Suite 300
Boca Raton, Florida 33431
Telephone: 561-526-8460
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)
Copies to:
Carl Marcellino
Tara Fisher
Ropes & Gray LLP
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
(212) 596-9000
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box. ☒
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933. Emerging growth company
If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.
† | The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012. |
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. Neither we nor the selling securityholder may sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and we are not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
Subject to Completion, dated June 14, 2022
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS
Lilium N.V.
Up to 21,691,268 Class A Shares
This prospectus relates to the offer and sale from time to time by Tumim Stone Capital LLC (“Tumim” or the “selling securityholder”) of up to 21,691,268 of our class A ordinary shares, nominal value €0.12 per share (“Class A Shares”).
This prospectus provides you with a general description of such securities and the general manner in which the selling securityholder may offer or sell the securities. More specific terms of any securities that the selling securityholder may offer or sell may be provided in a prospectus supplement that describes, among other things, the specific amounts and prices of the securities being offered and the terms of the offering. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information contained in this prospectus.
The Class A Shares being offered by Tumim have been and may be issued pursuant to the share purchase agreement dated June 3, 2022 that we entered into with Tumim (the “Purchase Agreement”). We are not selling any securities under this prospectus and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of our Class A Shares by Tumim. However, we may receive up to $75.0 million (the “Total Commitment”) in aggregate gross proceeds from sales of our Class A Shares to Tumim that we may make under the Purchase Agreement, from time to time after the date of this prospectus.
On June 8, 2022, we issued 262,697 Class A Shares (the “Commitment Shares”) to Tumim as consideration for Tumim’s irrevocable commitment to purchase Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement. See the sections entitled “Tumim Stone Capital Committed Equity Financing” for a description of the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement and “Selling Securityholder” for additional information regarding Tumim.
We are registering the securities described above for resale pursuant to, among other things, the registration rights agreement between us and the selling securityholder. Our registration of the securities covered by this prospectus does not mean that either we or the selling securityholder will issue, offer or sell, as applicable, any of the securities. Tumim may sell the Class A Shares included in this prospectus in a number of different ways and at varying prices. We provide more information about how Tumim may sell the Class A Shares in the section entitled “Plan of Distribution.” Tumim is an “underwriter” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(11) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).
Tumim will pay all brokerage fees and commissions and similar expenses in connection with the offer and resale of the Class A Shares by Tumim pursuant to this prospectus. We will pay the expenses (except brokerage fees and commissions and similar expenses) incurred in registering under the Securities Act the offer and resale of the Class A Shares included in this prospectus by Tumim, including legal and accounting fees. See “Plan of Distribution.”
Our Class A Shares are listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “LILM”. On June 13, 2022, the closing sale price as reported on Nasdaq of our Class A Shares was $2.56 per share.
We may amend or supplement this prospectus from time to time by filing amendments or supplements as required. You should read this entire prospectus and any amendments or supplements carefully before you make your investment decision.
We are an “emerging growth company” as that term is defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 and, as such, are subject to reduced public company reporting requirements.
Our principal executive offices are located at Claude-Dornier Straße 1, Bldg. 335, 82234 Wessling, Germany.
Investing in our Class A Shares involves a high degree of risk. Before buying any Class A Shares, you should carefully read the discussion of material risks of investing in our Class A Shares in “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18 of this prospectus.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed on the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
Prospectus dated, 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED HISTORICAL AND OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION | 17 | |
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS | 81 | |
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F-1 |
You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus, any amendment or supplement to this prospectus or any free writing prospectus prepared by us or on our behalf. Neither we, nor the selling securityholder, have authorized any other person to provide you with different or additional information. Neither we, nor the selling securityholder, take responsibility for, nor can we provide assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may provide. The selling securityholder is not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus or such other date stated in this prospectus, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or prospects may have changed since those dates.
Except as otherwise set forth in this prospectus, neither we nor the selling securityholder have taken any action to permit a public offering of these securities outside the United States or to permit the possession or distribution of this prospectus outside the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about and observe any restrictions relating to the offering of these securities and the distribution of this prospectus outside the United States.
ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
This prospectus is part of a registration statement on Form F-1 that we filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) using a “shelf” registration process. Under this shelf registration process, the selling securityholder may, from time to time, offer and sell the Class A Shares described in this prospectus in one or more offerings.
We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of Class A Shares to be offered by the selling securityholder pursuant to this prospectus, but we will receive proceeds from the sale of our Class A Shares to the selling securityholder pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. We will pay the expenses, other than underwriting discounts and commissions, if any, associated with the sale of our Class A Shares pursuant to this prospectus. To the extent required, we and the selling securityholder, as applicable, will deliver a prospectus supplement with this prospectus to update the information contained in this prospectus. The prospectus supplement may also add, update or change information included in this prospectus. You should read both this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement, together with additional information described below under the caption “Where You Can Find More Information.” We have not, and the selling securityholder has not, authorized anyone to provide you with information different from that contained in this prospectus. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of the prospectus. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any other date.
This prospectus is not an offer of Class A Shares in any jurisdiction where an offer is not permitted.
On September 14, 2021 (the “Closing Date”), we closed our previously announced business combination (the “Business Combination”) pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, dated as of March 30, 2021, as amended (the “Business Combination Agreement”), by and among Qell Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company (“Qell”), Lilium GmbH, a German limited liability company, Lilium B.V., a Dutch private liability company (besloten vennootschap met beperkte aansprakelijkheid) (which was converted into a Dutch public limited liability company (naamloze vennootschap), Lilium N.V., prior to the closing of the Business Combination), and Queen Cayman Merger LLC, a Cayman Islands limited liability company and wholly owned subsidiary of Lilium (“Merger Sub”).
On the Closing Date, (i) Qell converted the class A ordinary shares of Qell (the “Qell Class A Ordinary Shares”) into a claim for corresponding equity in Merger Sub, with such claim then contributed to Lilium in exchange for one Class A Share, (ii) the shareholders of Lilium GmbH exchanged their shares of Lilium GmbH for shares in the capital of Lilium, with all Lilium GmbH shareholders, but Daniel Wiegand, receiving Class A Shares in the share capital of Lilium, and Daniel Wiegand receiving Class B Shares, and (iii) each outstanding warrant to purchase a Qell Class A Ordinary Share was converted into a warrant to purchase one Class A Share.
Unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms “Lilium,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Lilium N.V. (f/k/a Lilium B.V.) after conversion into a Dutch public limited liability company and Lilium B.V. prior to the conversion into a Dutch public liability company.
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT IFRS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Lilium’s audited financial statements included in this prospectus are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”).
CONVENTIONS THAT APPLY TO THIS PROSPECTUS
In this prospectus, unless otherwise specified or the context otherwise requires:
● | “$”, “USD” and “U.S. dollar” each refer to the United States dollar; and |
● | “€”, “EUR” and “Euro” each refer to the Euro. |
The exchange rate used for conversion between U.S. dollars and Euros is based on the ECB euro reference exchange rate published by the European Central Bank.
TRADEMARKS, SERVICE MARKS AND TRADE NAMES
The Lilium name, logos and other trademarks and service marks of Lilium appearing in this prospectus are the property of Lilium. Solely for convenience, some of the trademarks, service marks, logos and trade names referred to in this prospectus are presented without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, service marks and trade names. This prospectus contains additional trademarks, service marks and trade names of others. All trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are, to our knowledge, the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, service marks, copyrights or trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.
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FREQUENTLY USED TERMS
Unless otherwise stated in this prospectus or the context otherwise requires references to:
“2021 Plan” means the Lilium 2021 Equity Incentive Plan.
“AOC” means the air operator certificate or similar aviation operating authority.
“Azul” means Azul S.A. and Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras S.A., collectively.
“Azul Warrant” means the warrants issued on October 22, 2021 to Azul, which are exercisable for 1,800,000 Class A Shares at an exercise price of €0.12 per Class A Share.
“B2B” means business-to-business.
“B2C” means business-to-consumer.
“Board” means the board of directors of Lilium N.V.
“Business Combination” means the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement. “Business Combination Agreement” means the Business Combination Agreement, dated March 30, 2021, as amended, by and among Lilium GmbH, Merger Sub, Qell and Lilium. “CCPA” means the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.
“CDR” means our critical design review.
“Class A Shares” means the ordinary shares A, nominal value €0.12 per share, of Lilium.
“Class B Shares” means the ordinary shares B, nominal value €0.36 per share, of Lilium.
“Class C Shares” means the ordinary shares C, nominal value €0.24 per share, of Lilium.
“Closing” means the closing of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement.
“Code” means the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
“Company” means Lilium, unless the context indicates otherwise.
“COVID-19” means the novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19, and any evolutions, mutations thereof or related or associated epidemics, pandemic or disease outbreaks.
“DCGC” means the Dutch Corporate Governance Code.
“DEVT” means ducted electric vectored thrust.
“DOA” means the Design Organization Approval.
“EASA” means the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. “ESOP” means the Employee Stock Option Program.
“ESPP” means the Lilium 2021 Employee Share Purchase Plan.
“eVTOL” means electric vertical take-off-and-landing.
“Exchange Act” means the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
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“FAA” means the Federal Aviation Administration.
“FCPA” means the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
“General Meeting” means a general meeting of the shareholders of the Company.
“GDPR” means the General Data Protection Regulation.
“IAS” means the International Accounting Standard.
“IASB” means the International Accounting Standards Board.
“IBR” means the incremental borrowing rate.
“IFRS” means the International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the IASB.
“JOBS Act” means the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012.
“Lilium” means Lilium N.V.
“Lilium Jets” means the fully electric eVTOL aircraft being developed by Lilium.
“Lilium Shares” means the Class A Shares and the Class B Shares.
“Nasdaq” means The Nasdaq Global Select Market.
“OEMs” means original equipment manufacturers.
“PDR” means our preliminary design review.
“PIPE Financing” means the subscription for and purchase by the PIPE Investors of an aggregate of 45,000,000 Class A Shares at $10.00 per share for gross proceeds of $450,000,000 pursuant to the Subscription Agreements.
“PIPE Investors” means the investors in the PIPE Financing pursuant to the Subscription Agreements.
“POA” means the production organization approval.
“Private Warrants” means the warrants of Lilium N.V. originally held by certain former Qell shareholders, purchased by such holders in a private placement that occurred concurrently with the closing of Qell’s initial public offering and converted into warrants to purchase one Class A Share at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment, at the closing of the Business Combination.
“Public Warrants” means the publicly listed warrants of Lilium N.V. to purchase one Class A Share at a price of $11.50, subject to adjustment, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol “LILMW.”
“Qell” means Qell Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company.
“Qell Class A Ordinary Shares” means Qell’s Class A ordinary shares.
“Qell Class B Ordinary Shares” means Qell’s Class B ordinary shares.
“RAM” means regional air mobility, which refers to networks that will connect communities and locales within a region directly with one another.
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“Sarbanes-Oxley Act” means the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
“SC-VTOL” means Special Conditions for Small-Category VTOL Aircraft, EASA’s set of rules for the certification of small-category VTOL aircraft like the Lilium Jet.
“SEC” means the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Securities Act” means the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
“Shares” means the Class A Shares, the Class B Shares and the Class C Shares.
“SPAC” means special purpose acquisition company.
“SPAC Warrants” means, collectively, the Public Warrants and Private Warrants.
“Sponsor” means Qell Partners LLC, a Cayman Islands limited liability company.
“Sponsor Letter Agreement” means the Sponsor Letter Agreement, dated March 30, 2021, by and between Sponsor, Qell, Lilium GmbH and Lilium.
“Subscription Agreements” means the Subscription Agreements, dated March 30, 2021, between each of Lilium and Qell and the PIPE Investors.
“Type Certification” means certified compliance to the applicable airworthiness standards of the FAA and EASA, which is a necessary prerequisite to undertaking commercial operations of the Lilium Jet.
“Vertiport” means an area designed specifically for eVTOL aircraft to take off and land.
“VTOL” means vertical take-off and landing.
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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
This summary highlights certain information about us, this offering and selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary is not complete and does not contain all of the information that you should consider before deciding whether to invest in the Class A Shares covered by this prospectus. For a more complete understanding of our company and this offering, we encourage you to read and consider carefully the more detailed information in this prospectus and any related prospectus supplement, including the information set forth in the section titled “Risk Factors” in this prospectus and any related prospectus supplement, in their entirety before making an investment decision.
Unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise indicates, references to the “Company,” “we,” “our,” “us,” “Lilium” or the “Lilium Group” refer to Lilium N.V., together with its subsidiaries, or, as the context may require, may refer to local holders of Air Operator Certificates (“AOC”) or similar aviation operating authorities who Lilium anticipates will operate and control Lilium network air carrier operations in certain jurisdictions in order to comply with applicable law.
Our Company
Lilium is a next-generation transportation company. We are focused on developing an eVTOL aircraft for use in a new type of high-speed air transport system for people and goods – one that would offer increased connectivity for communities around the world as well as generate time savings to travelers, would be accessible from Vertiports close to homes and workplaces, be affordable for a large part of the population, and be more environmentally friendly than current regional air transportation.
The products we are developing are fully electric jet aircraft that can take off and land vertically with low noise. Our objective is for the Lilium Jets to be the basis for sustainable, high-speed RAM networks. We believe such networks will require less infrastructure than traditional airports or railway lines and a fully electric jet aircraft would produce minimal operating emissions. We expect our Lilium Jets will generate zero operating emissions during flight and, factoring in emissions from vehicle and battery production and infrastructure construction, we estimate total emissions per passenger mile of approximately 0.3 ounces CO2, which is approximately 97% less when compared to traditional commercial aviation. A single trip might save hours for a traveler; in aggregate, these networks could save our societies millions of travel hours - and significant carbon emissions - each year.
Currently, our development efforts are focused on our ongoing certification process for the Lilium Jet with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (the “EASA”) and Federal Aviation Administration (the “FAA”), and building out our manufacturing capacity. We plan to rely on three business models. First, we plan to use the Lilium Jet within regional passenger shuttle networks, initially in the U.S. and Europe, that we intend to create and operate with third parties (our “Lilium Network”). Second, we plan to provide a turnkey enterprise solution by selling fleets of Lilium Jets and related aftermarket services directly to enterprise and other customers (the “Turnkey Enterprise”). Third, we intend to target general business aviation customers as a supplemental business line, which we intend to deploy in tailored offerings through private or fractional ownership sales (our “Private and Fractional Sales”).
The new and developing eVTOL aircraft market has been made possible by a convergence of innovation across battery technology, lightweight materials, sensors and computing power, and propulsion technology. Morgan Stanley has projected that the eVTOL aircraft market could represent $1.0 trillion (in the base case) to $4.5 trillion (in the bull case) in revenues by 2040.
The Lilium Jet architecture is based on our proprietary Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust (“DEVT”) technology, which has been developed and rigorously tested over the last several years. While the majority of our eVTOL competitors leverage open rotor engines, which are based on unducted, counter rotating propeller blades that can have a higher noise profile, DEVT consists of quiet electric turbofans mounted within a cylindrical duct. DEVT offers a number of fundamental advantages over open propeller eVTOL architectures, including higher payload potential, safety, the highest market acceptance and penetration for ducted fans in commercial aviation, and potential scalability to larger aircraft in the future.
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We believe these technology advantages will enable our regional shuttle service model to carry more passengers (or cargo) per jet on longer (regional) trips than open propeller eVTOL aircraft. We are currently developing a lineup of Lilium Jets, including prospective four and six passenger models, that will be based on the same modular architecture but have distinct specifications and design targets based on their expected commercial use. The specifications for the Lilium Jets currently under development call for the aircraft to be able to cruise at up to 175 mph for a physical aircraft range of up to 155 miles (our maximum target for entry into service) and up to 110 miles of projected operating range at full payload excluding reserves. We believe the combination of longer average trip lengths and our anticipated passenger capacity for our lineup of Lilium Jets (and thus a higher load factor, depending on model) will provide greater time savings to customers, more competitive pricing and superior unit economics as compared to open propeller eVTOL architecture. We also believe our architectural platform would allow us to create a larger version of the Lilium Jet in the future based on similar architecture and technology. However, our design activities remain in process, and there can be no assurances that such a larger aircraft will be developed or the timing thereof.
We intend for the Lilium Jet to have low take-off noise: approximately 60 – 65db(A) at 100 meters (330 feet), depending on loading conditions, flight maneuvers and environmental factors. Our expectations are based on in-house analysis predictions, tests with prototype engines and real-world measurements of our Phoenix technology demonstrator (which is not optimized for noise, with no acoustic liners), though the actual noise profile of our serial production aircraft may differ depending on our final design and certification activities. By contrast, helicopters generate noise levels from 10 – 100 times higher. We are designing the Lilium Jet to be virtually inaudible (estimated 20 db(A) at 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) distance) from the ground during cruise flight.
We believe that our high-speed regional air networks will significantly change the economic calculus of passengers and businesses shipping goods when making transportation and shipping decisions. Based on current design specifications and our business model, we estimate that our Lilium Jets will be able to move people and goods five times faster than road transport, and that our eVTOL network will be approximately 100 times less costly and approximately 10 times faster to deploy than equivalent high-speed rail infrastructure, and considerably more adaptable to shifting passenger demand. These estimates are based on judgments and assumptions of our management in light of information available at this time; actual results may differ.
We believe that our aerospace team is one of the most capable in the eVTOL sector. Collectively, they have held instrumental roles in the delivery of the Airbus A350 XWB, Airbus A380, Airbus A320, the Gulfstream G-650 jet engine, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Harrier jet, among others. They are supported by approximately 450 aerospace engineers and a business team with a strong track record in building successful companies in Silicon Valley and Europe. In addition to our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Wiegand, the board of directors of Lilium (the “Board”) includes our Chairman, Dr. Thomas Enders, as well as Henri Courpron, Barry Engle, David Neeleman, Margaret M. Smyth, Gabrielle Toledano, David Wallerstein and Niklas Zennström.
We have an approximately 100,000 square foot technology prototyping and production facility at the Oberpfaffenhofen airfield near our Munich headquarters in Germany, which is currently being expanded by approximately 45,000 square feet. We expect this facility may eventually house our serial aircraft production, including the anticipated manufacturing of the proprietary propulsion and energy systems and the final assembly of the serial aircraft. Other sub-systems and components will be outsourced to Tier 1 aerospace suppliers, such as Toray Industries, Aciturri Aeronáutica, DENSO and Honeywell.
Lilium is a Dutch public limited liability company (naamloze vennootschap). The mailing address of our principal executive office is Claude-Dornier Straße 1, Bldg. 335, 82234 Wessling, Germany, our phone number is +49 160 9704 6857, and our website is www.lilium.com. Information contained in our website is not a part of, nor incorporated by reference into, this prospectus or our other filings with the SEC and should not be relied upon.
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Recent Developments
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
Strict measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 adopted in several countries where we operate initially resulted in the majority of our workforce working from home for much of 2020 and 2021 with a small number of special purposes teams responsible for development of the Lilium Jet remaining onsite. Modern forms of communication enabled contact to be maintained between various members of staff and deadlines defined before the period during which employees were working from home have been complied with. Lilium incurred additional expenses related to the health, safety and transportation of employees onsite; however, the impact of these additional expenses did not materially impact our consolidated financial statements. With COVID-19 vaccines becoming more broadly available, most of our employees have returned to onsite work. However, there can be no assurance that future developments regarding the spread of COVID-19 will not result in a return to working from home for large portions of our workforce and the reinstatement of additional COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Uncertainty regarding the consequences and duration of COVID-19 has negatively impacted the ability to develop a precise forecast for product development. Based on the latest developments, we are expecting that business operations can be continued.
We are monitoring the global outbreak of COVID-19 and have taken steps to identify and mitigate the adverse effects and risks to us as a result of the pandemic. We have continued to implement social distancing and other COVID-19 mitigation practices and are ready to reintroduce additional modifications to our business practices depending on the ongoing development of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to continue to take actions as may be required or recommended by government authorities or in the best interests of our employees and business partners. While the pandemic has not resulted in a material slowdown in our engineering, testing, certification and production activities, our operations, and the operations of our vendors, suppliers, and commercial partners, including infrastructure, airline, training and other business partners, may be adversely impacted. Despite vaccines becoming available, COVID-19’s ongoing economic and health repercussions may also negatively impact our future field engineering, testing and certification processes and manufacturing capacity, as well as our commercial activities, including potential delays and restrictions on our ability to recruit and train staff. COVID-19 could also affect the operations of our suppliers and business partners, which has resulted and may continue to result in delays or disruptions in the supply chain of our components, parts and materials, which could delay the development and rollout of a Vertiport network and our commercial operations. We will continue to closely monitor the effects of the pandemic. For additional information on risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, see “Risk Factors.”
Impact of the War in Ukraine
Although we do not have any operations or direct suppliers located in Ukraine or Russia and have not yet experienced any direct impacts from the conflict, we believe our continuing design and development activities, regulatory certification processes and ability to contract with prospective customers, suppliers and other counterparties, as well as to progress to the production, manufacturing and commercialization of the Lilium Jets, could be adversely affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. For example, the continuance or any escalation of the conflict could result in disruptions to our business and operations, increase inflationary pressures and adversely affect our anticipated unit and production costs, increase raw material costs and cause further disruption to supply chains, impacting our ability to successfully contract with suppliers, and have other adverse impacts on our anticipated costs and commercialization timeline.
Existing or additional government actions, including sanctions, taken in response to the conflict could also adversely impact the commercial and regulatory environment in which we operate. Such disruptions could similarly impact our data protection and design efforts, including if there are any increased cyberattacks or data security incidents as a result of the conflict, and negatively impact our corporate, research and development and production efforts and result in us incurring increased cybersecurity costs.
We continue to closely monitor the possible effects of the conflict in Europe and general economic factors on our business and planning. These factors put pressure on our costs for employees and materials and services we procure from our suppliers, as well as affect other stakeholders and regulatory agencies.
For additional information on risks posed by the conflict in Europe and general economic factors, see “Risk Factors.”
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CEO Appointment
On June 1, 2022, we announced that Klaus Roewe, long-time Airbus executive, will serve as our new Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Roewe will be joining Lilium on August 1, 2022. Daniel Wiegand, Lilium co-founder and our current CEO, will continue as our Chief Engineer for Innovation and Future Programs and as a board director. Mr. Wiegand’s compensation will be renegotiated in connection with his transition to the role of Chief Engineer for Innovation and Future Programs. Mr. Roewe’s appointment as CEO will be confirmed at our annual general meeting in the Fall of 2022.
Related Person Transactions
Plane View Partners
In May 2022, we entered into a Professional Services Agreement (the “PVP Agreement”) with Plane View Partners LLC (“PVP”), a renowned aviation advisory firm founded and chaired by Mr. Henri Courpron, a member of our Board. Pursuant to the PVP Agreement, we engaged PVP to provide consultancy services with respect to progressing our commercial strategy for a period of six-weeks for a one-time fee of $200,000.
Richardson Success Fee
On May 17, 2022, we entered into a success fee letter with Mr. Geoffrey Richardson, our Chief Financial Officer, pursuant to which we agreed to pay Mr. Richardson a success fee upon successful completion of certain equity, debt, joint venture or merger transactions prior to December 31, 2025. The success fee shall equal 1% of the gross capital raised in any such transactions, subject to a cap of $10 million.
Richardson Bonus Agreements
Pursuant to a letter agreement of May 17, 2022, commencing with 2022, Mr. Richardson is eligible to participate in the executive bonus scheme with an annual target for 2022 equal to 30% of his annual base salary. The annual bonus is subject to applicable tax and social security withholding and any other deductions or withholding required by applicable law or regulation.
Pursuant to a letter agreement of May 17, 2022, for the calendar year 2022, Mr. Richardson is eligible to receive a discretionary bonus of $75,000 provided that he remains employed by the Company through the end of December 31, 2022. Payment may be made in cash or fully vested stock-settled Company stock units, and shall be subject to applicable tax and social security withholding and any other deductions or withholding required by applicable law or regulation.
Pursuant to a letter agreement of May 17, 2022, a subsidiary of the Company agreed that Mr. Geoffrey Richardson is eligible to receive a discretionary bonus of $175,000 provided that Mr. Richardson remains an employee of the Company’s subsidiary through December 31, 2022. Payment may be made in cash or fully vested stock-settled Company stock units, and shall be subject to applicable tax and social security withholding and any other deductions or withholding required by applicable law or regulation.
Legal Proceedings
On April 18, 2022, a putative class action was filed against Lilium N.V., Daniel Wiegand, Geoffrey Richardson, and Barry Engle for purported violations of United States securities laws (the “Lawsuit”). The Lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and is presently captioned as: Maniraj Ashirwad Gnanaraj v. Lilium N.V. et al., 2:22-CV-02564. The Company’s management believes the claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend this litigation. The Lawsuit is currently at a preliminary stage and Lilium cannot predict its outcome, so the Company therefore cannot determine the likelihood of loss or estimate a range of possible loss.
Financial Update
We had a total cash spend of $67 million in the first quarter 2022, as compared to $73 million in the fourth quarter 2021. Our liquidity, consisting of cash, cash equivalents and other financial assets, as of March 31, 2022, was $331 million.
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The financial figures presented above are preliminary and unaudited, represent a management estimate as of the date of this prospectus and are subject to completion of our financial closing procedures.
The preliminary financial data included in this prospectus has been prepared by, and is the responsibility of, Lilium N.V.’s management. PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has not audited, reviewed, compiled, or applied agreed-upon procedures with respect to the preliminary financial data. Accordingly, PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft does not express an opinion or any other form of assurance with respect thereto.
Tumim Stone Capital Committed Equity Financing
On June 3, 2022, we entered into the Purchase Agreement with Tumim, pursuant to which Tumim has committed to purchase up to $75.0 million of Class A Shares (the “Total Commitment”), at our direction from time to time after the date of this prospectus, subject to the satisfaction of the conditions in the Purchase Agreement. Also on June 3, 2022, we entered into a registration rights agreement with Tumim (the “Registration Rights Agreement”), pursuant to which we have filed with the SEC the registration statement that includes this prospectus to register for resale under the Securities Act, the Class A Shares that have been and may be issued to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement. Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, at the time we signed the Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement, we issued 262,697 Commitment Shares to Tumim as consideration for its commitment to purchase our Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement. The 262,697 Commitment Shares are also covered by this prospectus.
The sales of Class A Shares by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, if any, will be subject to certain limitations and may occur, from time to time at our sole discretion, over the approximately 24-month period commencing upon the initial satisfaction of all conditions to Tumim’s purchase obligations set forth in the Purchase Agreement (the “Commencement,” and the date on which the Commencement occurs, the “Commencement Date”), including that the registration statement that includes this prospectus covering the resale by Tumim of Class A Shares that have been and may be issued under the Purchase Agreement is declared effective by the SEC. From and after the Commencement Date, we will have the right, but not the obligation, from time to time at our sole discretion, to direct Tumim to purchase certain amounts of our Class A Shares, subject to certain limitations in the Purchase Agreement, that we specify in purchase notices that we deliver to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement (each such purchase, a “Purchase”). Class A Shares will be issued from the Company to Tumim at a 3% discount to the volume weighted average price (the “VWAP”) of the Class A Shares during the trading day on the date that a purchase notice with respect to a particular purchase (a “VWAP Purchase Notice”) is delivered from the Company to Tumim. Each VWAP Purchase Notice from the Company to Tumim will direct that Tumim purchase the applicable number of Class A Shares at the applicable purchase price. There is no upper limit on the price per share that Tumim could be obligated to pay for the Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement. The purchase price per Class A Share to be sold in a purchase will be appropriately adjusted for any reorganization, recapitalization, non-cash dividend, share split, reverse share split or other similar transaction.
Tumim has no right to require us to sell any Class A Shares to Tumim, but Tumim is obligated to make purchases as directed by us, subject to the satisfaction of conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement at Commencement and thereafter at each time that we may direct Tumim to purchase Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement. Actual sales of Class A Shares to Tumim will depend on a variety of factors to be determined by us from time to time, including, among others, market conditions, the trading price of our Class A Shares and determinations by us as to the appropriate sources of funding for us and our operations.
The Purchase Agreement prohibits us from directing Tumim to purchase any Class A Shares if those shares, when aggregated with all other Class A Shares then beneficially owned by Tumim (as calculated pursuant to Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 13d-3 thereunder), would result in Tumim beneficially owning more than 4.99% of the outstanding Class A Shares (the “Beneficial Ownership Cap”). The Beneficial Ownership Cap may be increased to 9.99% at the discretion of Tumim.
The net proceeds under the Purchase Agreement to us will depend on the frequency and prices at which we sell Class A Shares to Tumim. We expect that any proceeds received by us from such sales to Tumim will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
There are no restrictions on future financings, rights of first refusal, participation rights, penalties or liquidated damages in the Purchase Agreement or the Registration Rights Agreement. Tumim has agreed not to cause, or engage in any manner whatsoever, any
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direct or indirect short selling or execute any stock pledge, forward sales contract, option, put, call, swap or similar hedging arrangement (including on a total return basis) of the Class A Shares during the term of the Purchase Agreement.
The Purchase Agreement will automatically terminate upon the earliest of (i) the expiration of the 24-month period following the date of execution of the Purchase Agreement, (ii) Tumim’s purchase of the Total Commitment worth of Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement, or (iii) the occurrence of certain other events set forth in the Purchase Agreement. We have the right to terminate the Purchase Agreement at any time after Commencement, at no cost or penalty, upon one trading day’s prior written notice to Tumim. Neither we nor Tumim may assign or transfer any rights and obligations under the Purchase Agreement, and no provision of the Purchase Agreement or the Registration Rights Agreement may be modified or waived by the parties.
As consideration for Tumim’s commitment to purchase Class A Shares upon the terms of and subject to satisfaction of the conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement, upon execution of the Purchase Agreement, we issued 262,697 Commitment Shares to Tumim.
The Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement contain customary representations, warranties, conditions and indemnification obligations of the parties. The representations, warranties and covenants contained in such agreements were made only for purposes of such agreements and as of specific dates, were solely for the benefit of the parties to such agreements and may be subject to limitations agreed upon by the contracting parties.
We do not know what the purchase price for our Class A Shares will be and therefore cannot be certain as to the number of Class A Shares we might issue to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement after the Commencement Date. As of June 8, 2022, there were 266,765,951 Class A Shares outstanding, of which 147,238,801 Class A Shares were held by non-affiliates. Although the Purchase Agreement provides that we may sell up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares to Tumim, only 21,691,268 Class A Shares are being registered for resale by the selling securityholder under this prospectus, which represents (i) 262,697 Commitment Shares we issued on June 8, 2022 as consideration for Tumim’s irrevocable commitment to purchase our Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement and (ii) up to 21,428,571 Class A Shares that may be issued to Tumim from and after the Commencement Date, if and when we elect to sell Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement. Depending on the market prices of our Class A Shares at the time we elect to issue and sell Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, we may need to register for resale under the Securities Act additional Class A Shares in order to receive aggregate gross proceeds equal to the $75.0 million Total Commitment available to us under the Purchase Agreement. If all of the 21,691,268 Class A Shares offered by Tumim for resale under this prospectus were issued and outstanding as of June 8, 2022, such Class A Shares would represent approximately 7.5% of the total number of our Class A Shares outstanding and approximately 12.8% of the total number of outstanding Class A Shares held by non-affiliates on such date. If we elect to issue and sell more than the 21,428,571 Class A Shares offered under this prospectus to Tumim, which we have the right, but not the obligation, to do, we must first register for resale under the Securities Act any such additional Class A Shares, which could cause additional substantial dilution to our shareholders. The number of Class A Shares ultimately offered for resale by Tumim is dependent upon the number of Class A Shares we may elect to sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement from and after the Commencement Date.
There are substantial risks to our shareholders as a result of the sale and issuance of Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement. These risks include substantial dilution, significant declines in our share price and our inability to draw sufficient funds when needed. See “Risk Factors.” Issuances of our Class A Shares in this offering will not affect the rights or privileges of our existing shareholders, except that the economic and voting interests of each of our existing shareholders will be diluted as a result of any such issuance. Although the number of Class A Shares that our existing shareholders own will not decrease, the shares owned by our existing shareholders will represent a smaller percentage of our total outstanding shares after any such issuance to Tumim.
Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Foreign Private Issuer
We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). As an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to most other public companies. The exemptions include, but are not limited to:
● | an exemption from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring that our independent registered public accounting firm provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting; |
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● | reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation; and |
● | not being required to hold a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation or seek shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. |
We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of (i) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the closing of the Business Combination, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of equity securities held by our non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of our prior second fiscal quarter, and (ii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
We are also considered a “foreign private issuer” subject to reporting requirements under the Exchange Act, as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. As a “foreign private issuer,” we will be subject to different U.S. securities laws than domestic U.S. issuers. The rules governing the information that we must disclose differ from those governing U.S. corporations pursuant to the Exchange Act. This means that, even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, as long as we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:
● | the rules under the Exchange Act prescribing the furnishing and content of proxy statements to shareholders and requirements that the proxy statements conform to Schedule 14A of the proxy rules promulgated under the Exchange Act; |
● | the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act; |
● | the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders (i.e., officers, directors and holders of more than 10% of our issued and outstanding equity securities) to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; |
● | the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q containing unaudited financial and other specified information, or current reports on Form 8-K, upon the occurrence of specified significant events; and |
● | the SEC rules on disclosure of compensation on an individual basis unless individual disclosure is required in our home country (the Netherlands) and is not otherwise publicly disclosed by us. |
Additionally, as a “foreign private issuer,” as defined by the SEC, we are permitted to follow home country corporate governance practices, instead of certain corporate governance standards required by Nasdaq for U.S. companies. Accordingly, we follow Dutch corporate governance rules in lieu of certain of Nasdaq’s corporate governance requirements and elect to follow Dutch corporate governance rules in lieu thereof.
We may take advantage of these exemptions until such time as we are no longer a foreign private issuer.
We would cease to be a foreign private issuer at such time as more than 50% of our outstanding voting securities are held by U.S. residents and any of the following three circumstances applies: (i) the majority of our executive officers or directors are U.S. citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50% of our assets are located in the United States or (iii) our business is administered principally in the United States.
We may choose to take advantage of some but not all of these reduced reporting requirements of which we have taken advantage of in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different from the information you receive from our competitors that are U.S. domestic filers, or other U.S. domestic public companies in which you have made an investment.
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Risk Factors
Investing in Class A Shares entails a high degree of risk as more fully described in the “Risk Factors” section beginning on page 18 of this prospectus. These risks include, among others, the following:
● | It is not possible to predict the actual number of Class A Shares we will sell under the Purchase Agreement to the selling securityholder or the actual gross proceeds resulting from those sales. |
● | Our management team will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from our sale of Class A Shares to the selling securityholder, if any, and you may not agree with how we use the proceeds and the proceeds, may not be invested successfully. |
● | We have incurred significant losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability. |
● | The eVTOL market may not continue to develop, or eVTOL aircraft may not be adopted by the transportation market. |
● | Our eVTOL aircraft may not be certified by transportation and aviation authorities, including EASA or the FAA. |
● | The Lilium Jet may not deliver the expected reduction in operating costs or time savings that we anticipate. |
● | The success of our business depends on the safety and positive perception of the Lilium Jets, the convenience of Lilium’s Vertiports and our ability to effectively market and sell RAM services and aircraft. |
● | We have a limited operating history and face significant challenges to develop, certify, manufacture and launch our services in a new industry, urban and regional air transportation services. The Lilium eVTOL jet remains in development, and we do not expect to launch commercial services until 2025, if at all. |
● | The RAM market for eVTOL passenger and goods transport services does not exist; whether and how it develops is based on assumptions, and the RAM market may not achieve the growth potential we expect or may grow more slowly than expected. |
● | We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our pre-launch operations, and our costs will continue to be significant after we commence operations. |
● | We may experience difficulties in managing our growth and commercializing our operations. |
● | Our business model has yet to be tested or regulatorily approved, and any failure to commercialize our strategic plans would have an adverse effect on our operating results and business, harm our reputation and could result in substantial liabilities that exceed our resources. |
● | We anticipate commencing commercial operations with our fully developed Lilium Jet, if regulatorily approved and certified, which is currently in the design and development phase and has yet to complete the testing and certification process. Any delay in completing testing and certification, and any design changes that may be required to be implemented in order to receive certification, would adversely impact our business plan and our financial condition. |
● | Any delays in the development, certification, manufacture and commercialization of the Lilium Jets and related technology, such as battery technology or electric motors, may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. |
● | If we are unable to successfully design, manufacture and obtain regulatory approval and certification of our jets, or if the jets we build fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market and sell our jets and services could be harmed. |
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● | The Lilium Jets require complex software, battery technology and other technology systems that remain in development in coordination with our vendors and suppliers to achieve serial production. |
● | We will rely on third-party suppliers for the provision and development of key emerging technologies, components and materials used in the Lilium Jet, such as the lithium-ion batteries that will power the jets, a significant number of which may be single or limited source suppliers. |
● | If any of our suppliers become economically distressed or go bankrupt, we may be required to provide substantial financial support or take other measures to ensure supplies of components or materials, which could increase our costs, affect our liquidity or cause production disruptions. |
● | Third-party air carriers will operate our Lilium Network services in the U.S., Europe and Brazil using the Lilium Jets. These third-party air carriers are subject to substantial regulation and laws, and unfavorable changes to, or the third-party air carriers’ failure to comply with, these regulations and/or laws could substantially harm our business and operating results. |
● | We are subject to substantial regulation and laws, and unfavorable changes to, or our failure to comply with, these regulations and/or laws could substantially harm our business and operating results. |
● | Any inability to operate our Lilium Network services after commercial launch at our anticipated flight rate, on our anticipated routes or with our anticipated Vertiports could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results operations. |
● | Our potential customers may not generally accept the RAM industry or our passenger or goods transport services. If we are unable to convince customers of the convenience of our services and generally provide high quality customer service that will be expected of a premium service, our business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected. |
● | Adverse publicity stemming from any incident involving us or our competitors, or an incident involving any air travel service or unmanned flight based on autonomous technology, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. |
● | Although we hope to be among the first to bring eVTOL RAM services to market, our competitors have also displayed eVTOL technology demonstrators and may gain certification and commercialize their vehicles to allow them to enter the market before us. |
● | Our business plans require a significant amount of capital. In addition, our future capital needs may require us to sell additional equity or debt securities that may adversely affect the market price of our Class A Shares and dilute our shareholders or introduce covenants that may restrict our operations. |
● | Business disruptions and other risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical events, including related inflationary pressures, may impact our ability to successfully contract with our supply chain and have adverse impacts on our anticipated costs and commercialization timeline. |
● | We may not be able to develop or deliver Lilium Jets with the specifications and on the timelines anticipated in any non-binding MOUs or term sheets we have entered into or any binding contractual agreements with customers or suppliers we may enter into in the future, which may lead to reputational harm, reduced revenues or cash payments, or other forms of contractual penalties and, as a result, adversely affect our business and results of operations. |
Corporate Information
We were incorporated as a Dutch private limited liability company (besloten vennootschap met beperkte aansprakelijkheid) under the name Qell DutchCo B.V. on March 11, 2021 solely for the purpose of effectuating the Business Combination. Prior to the Business Combination, Qell DutchCo B.V. did not conduct any material activities other than those incidental to its formation and certain matters related to the Business Combination, such as the making of certain required securities law filings.
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Our name was changed from Qell DutchCo B.V. to Lilium B.V. on April 8, 2021. In connection with the closing of the Business Combination on September 10, 2021, we converted into a Dutch public limited liability company (naamloze vennootschap) as Lilium N.V.
We are registered in the Commercial Register of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) under number 82165874. Our official seat (statutaire zetel) is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the mailing and business address of our principal executive office is Claude-Dornier Straße 1, Bldg. 335, 82234, Wessling, Germany. Our telephone number is +49 160 9704 6857.
We maintain a website at www.lilium.com, where we regularly post copies of our press releases as well as additional information about us. From time to time, we may also use our website for disclosure of material information about our business and operations. Our filings with the SEC are available free of charge through the website as soon as reasonably practicable after being electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. Information contained in our website is not a part of, nor incorporated by reference into, this prospectus or our other filings with the SEC, and should not be relied upon.
The Lilium name, logos and other trademarks and service marks of Lilium appearing in this prospectus are the property of Lilium. Solely for convenience, some of the trademarks, service marks, logos and trade names referred to in this prospectus are presented without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, service marks and trade names. This prospectus contains additional trademarks, service marks and trade names of others. All trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are, to our knowledge, the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, service marks, copyrights or trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies.
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THE OFFERING
Issuer |
| Lilium N.V. |
Issuance of Class A Shares | ||
Class A Shares offered by the Selling Securityholder | 262,697 Commitment Shares issued to Tumim upon execution of the Purchase Agreement, and up to 21,428,571 Class A Shares (the “Purchase Shares”) we may sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement from time to time after the Commencement Date. | |
Class A Shares outstanding1 | 266,765,951 Class A Shares (as of June 8, 2022) | |
Class A Shares outstanding after giving effect to the issuance of the Class A Shares registered for resale hereunder | 288,457,219 Class A Shares (or 312,870,284 Class A Shares, assuming conversion of all outstanding Class B Shares), based on total shares outstanding as of June 8, 2022. The actual number of Purchase Shares issued will vary depending upon the actual sales prices to Tumim pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. | |
Use of Proceeds | We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of Class A Shares included in this prospectus by the selling securityholder. We have not and will not receive any cash proceeds from the issuance of the Commitment Shares. We may receive up to $75.0 million aggregate gross proceeds from sales of Class A Shares that we elect to make to Tumim pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any, from time to time in our sole discretion, from and after the Commencement Date. | |
Any proceeds that we receive from sales of our Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.” |
1 | The number of Class A Shares issued and outstanding as of June 8, 2022 does not include 375,000 issued Class A Shares held by Lilium as treasury shares as of June 8, 2022. |
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED HISTORICAL AND OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Summary Historical Financial Data of Lilium
The following table shows summary historical financial information of Lilium for the periods and as of the dates indicated. The summary historical financial information of Lilium as of and for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 was derived from the audited historical financial statements of Lilium included elsewhere in this prospectus.
The following summary historical financial information should be read together with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary historical financial information in this section is not intended to replace our consolidated financial statements and the related notes. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results.
Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
| 2021 |
| 2020 | |||
(in € thousands) | ||||||
Statement of Operations Data | ||||||
Revenue |
| 47 | 97 | |||
Cost of sales |
| (11) | (10) | |||
Gross profit |
| 36 | 87 | |||
Total operating expenses |
| (400,602) | (138,807) | |||
Operating loss |
| (400,566) | (138,720) | |||
Financial result |
| (8,913) | (49,661) | |||
Loss before income tax |
| (410,327) | (188,381) | |||
Income tax expense |
| (709) | (46) | |||
Net loss |
| (411,036) | (188,427) | |||
Statement of Financial Position Data |
|
| ||||
Total assets |
| 431,425 | 184,946 | |||
Total equity |
| 342,511 | 57,722 | |||
Total liabilities |
| 88,914 | 127,224 | |||
Statement of Cash Flows Data |
|
| ||||
Cash flow from operating activities |
| (215,066) | (77,883) | |||
Cash flow from investing activities |
| (203,426) | (59,472) | |||
Cash flow from financing activities |
| 446,184 | 179,955 |
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RISK FACTORS
Investing in our Class A Shares involves a high degree of risk. In addition to the other information set forth in this prospectus, you should carefully consider the risk factors discussed below when considering an investment in our Class A Shares and any risk factors that may be set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement, as well as the other information contained in this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement. If any of the following risks occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that case, the market price of our Class A Shares could decline and you could lose some or all of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations.
Risks Related to the Offering
It is not possible to predict the actual number of Class A Shares we will sell under the Purchase Agreement to the selling securityholder or the actual gross proceeds resulting from those sales.
On June 3, 2022, we entered into the Purchase Agreement with Tumim, pursuant to which Tumim has committed to purchase up to $75.0 million of Class A Shares, subject to certain limitations and conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement. The Class A Shares that may be issued under the Purchase Agreement may be sold by us to Tumim at our discretion from time to time over an approximately 24-month period commencing upon the initial satisfaction of all conditions to Tumim’s purchase obligations set forth in the Purchase Agreement.
We generally have the right to control the timing and amount of any sales of our Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement. Sales of our Class A Shares, if any, to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement will depend upon market conditions and other factors to be determined by us. We may ultimately decide to sell to Tumim all, some or none of the Class A Shares that may be available for us to sell to Tumim pursuant to the Purchase Agreement.
Because the purchase price per Class A Share to be paid by Tumim for the Class A Shares that we may elect to sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, if any, will fluctuate based on the market price of our Class A Shares during the applicable period for each purchase made pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any, it is not possible for us to predict, as of the date of this prospectus and prior to any such sales, the number of Class A Shares that we will sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, the purchase price per Class A Share that Tumim will pay for Class A Shares purchased from us under the Purchase Agreement, or the aggregate gross proceeds that we will receive from those purchases by Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, if any.
Moreover, although the Purchase Agreement provides that we may sell up to an aggregate of $75.0 million of our Class A Shares to Tumim, only 21,691,268 Class A Shares are being registered for resale by Tumim under the registration statement that includes this prospectus, consisting of Class A Shares that we may elect to sell to Tumim, in our sole discretion, from time to time from and after the Commencement Date under the Purchase Agreement. If after the Commencement Date we elect to sell to Tumim all of the 21,428,571 Class A Shares being registered for resale under this prospectus that are available for sale by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, depending on the market prices of our Class A Shares during the applicable period for each purchase made pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, the actual gross proceeds from the sale of all such Class A Shares may be substantially less than the $75.0 million Total Commitment available to us under the Purchase Agreement, which could materially adversely affect our liquidity.
If it becomes necessary for us to issue and sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement more than the 21,428,571 Class A Shares being registered for resale under the registration statement that are included in this prospectus in order to receive aggregate gross proceeds equal to the Total Commitment of $75.0 million under the Purchase Agreement, we must file with the SEC one or more additional registration statements to register under the Securities Act the resale by Tumim of any such additional Class A Shares we wish to sell from time to time under the Purchase Agreement, which the SEC must declare effective. Any issuance and sale by us under the Purchase Agreement of a substantial amount of Class A Shares in addition to the 21,691,268 Class A Shares being registered for resale by Tumim under this prospectus could cause additional substantial dilution to our shareholders. The number of Class A Shares ultimately offered for sale by Tumim is dependent upon the number of Class A Shares, if any, we ultimately sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement.
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The sale and issuance of Class A Shares to the selling securityholder will cause dilution to our existing securityholders, and the sale of the Class A Shares acquired by the selling securityholder, or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause the price of our Class A Shares to fall.
The purchase price for the Class A Shares that we may sell to the selling securityholder under the Purchase Agreement will fluctuate based on the price of our Class A Shares. Depending on market liquidity at the time, sales of such Class A Shares may cause the trading price of our Class A Shares to fall.
If and when we do sell Class A Shares to the selling securityholder, after the selling securityholder has acquired the Class A Shares, the selling securityholder may resell all, some or none of those Class A Shares at any time or from time to time in its discretion. Therefore, sales to the selling securityholder by us could result in substantial dilution to the interests of other holders of Class A Shares. Additionally, the sale of a substantial number of Class A Shares to the selling securityholder, or the anticipation of such sales, could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise wish to effect sales.
Investors who buy Class A Shares at different times will likely pay different prices.
Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, we will have discretion, subject to market demand, to vary the timing, prices and numbers of Class A Shares sold to Tumim. If and when we do elect to sell Class A Shares to Tumim pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, after Tumim has acquired such Class A Shares, Tumim may resell all, some or none of such Class A Shares at any time or from time to time in its discretion and at different prices. As a result, investors who purchase Class A Shares from Tumim in this offering at different times will likely pay different prices for those Class A Shares and so may experience different levels of dilution and in some cases substantial dilution and different outcomes in their investment results. Investors may experience a decline in the value of the Class A Shares they purchase from Tumim in this offering as a result of future sales made by us to Tumim at prices lower than the prices such investors paid for their Class A Shares in this offering.
Our management team will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from our sale of Class A Shares to the selling securityholder, if any, and you may not agree with how we use the proceeds, and the proceeds may not be invested successfully.
Our management team will have broad discretion as to the use of the net proceeds from our sale of Class A Shares to the selling securityholder, if any, and we could use such proceeds for purposes other than those contemplated at the time of commencement of this offering. Accordingly, you will be relying on the judgment of our management team with regard to the use of those net proceeds, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the proceeds are being used appropriately. It is possible that, pending their use, we may invest those net proceeds in a way that does not yield a favorable, or any, return for us. The failure of our management team to use such funds effectively could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. See “Use of Proceeds.”
Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Position
We have incurred significant losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability.
We have incurred significant operating losses. Our operating losses were €58.2 million, €138.7 million and €400.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. We expect to continue to incur substantial losses during 2022. Our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021 have been prepared on a basis that assumes we will continue as a going concern, as described in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We have received approximately $584 million (approximately €493 million) in gross proceeds pursuant to the Business Combination and related PIPE Financing and expect to use these amounts to progress part of the certification, production and commercialization of the Lilium Jets. However, we have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could utilize our available capital resources sooner than we expect. In addition, we have not yet started commercial operations, making it difficult for us to predict our future operating results, and we believe that we will continue to incur operating losses until at least the time we begin commercial operations. As a result, our losses may be larger than anticipated, and we may not achieve profitability when expected, or at all, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability.
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We expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we complete our aircraft design, build manufacturing sites and arrange the commercial relationships necessary to launch our operations. We expect the rate at which we incur losses will be significantly higher for 2022 through at least 2025 as we engage in the following activities:
● | continue to design, certify and produce our Lilium Jet aircraft; |
● | engage suppliers in the development of aircraft components and commit capital to serial production of those components; |
● | finish building our production capabilities to assemble the major components of our jets: the propulsion systems, energy system assembly and aircraft integration, as well as the cost associated with outsourcing production of subsystems and commodity components; |
● | close relationships with infrastructure providers to build and develop our Vertiport infrastructure, and with third-party operators and other necessary partners, to launch and operate our Lilium Network operations; |
● | hire additional employees across development, design, production, marketing, administration and commercialization of our business; |
● | engage with third party providers for design, testing, certification and commercialization of our business; |
● | build up inventories of parts and components for our jets; |
● | further enhance our research and development capacities to continue the work on our jet’s technology, components, hardware and software performance; |
● | test and certify the performance and operation of our jets; |
● | work with third-party providers to train pilots, mechanics and technicians in our proprietary jet operation and maintenance; |
● | develop and launch our digital platform and customer user interface; |
● | develop our sales and marketing activities in order to establish relationships and work with, among others, customers, leasing companies, and private individuals to fill our sales pipeline; and |
● | increase our general and administrative functions to support our growing operations and our responsibilities as a public company. |
Because we will incur the costs and expenses from these efforts before we receive any associated revenue, our losses in future periods will likely continue to be significant. In addition, we may find that these efforts are more expensive than we currently anticipate or that these efforts may not result in the revenue we anticipate, which would further increase our losses. Based on our recurring losses from operations since inception, expectation of continuing operating losses in the future and the need to raise additional capital to finance our future operations, we have concluded that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources — Substantial Doubt about the Company’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern.” In addition, the current economic environment could limit our ability to raise capital by issuing new equity or debt securities on acceptable terms or at all, and lenders may be unwilling to lend funds on acceptable terms or at all in the amounts that would be required to supplement cash flows to support operations. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity, debt or other financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or, in the worst case, to terminate our research and development and commercialization efforts and may not be able to fund our continuing operations. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in acquiring customers or expanding our operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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The eVTOL market may not continue to develop, eVTOL aircraft may not be adopted by the transportation market, eVTOL aircraft may not be certified by transportation and aviation authorities or eVTOL aircraft may not deliver the expected reduction in operating costs or time savings.
eVTOL aircraft involve a complex set of technologies and are subject to evolving regulations, many of which were originally not intended to apply to electric and/or VTOL aircraft. Before any eVTOL aircraft can fly passengers, manufacturers and operators must receive requisite regulatory approvals, including — but not limited to — aircraft Type Certificate and certification-related to air service operations (AOC etc.). No eVTOL aircraft have passed certification by EASA or the FAA for commercial operations in Europe or the U.S., respectively, and there is no assurance that our current prototype for the Lilium Jet will receive government certification in a way that is market-viable or commercially successful, in a timely manner or at all. Gaining government certification requires us to prove the performance, reliability and safety of our Lilium Jet, which cannot be assured. In addition, the regulatory standards for eVTOL aircraft are under continuing assessment and development by EASA, the FAA and other applicable regulatory agencies and remain subject to change, and we are subject to uncertainty relating to the standards that may ultimately be applicable to the certification and operation of the Lilium Jets, as well as the timeline on which such regulatory standards are developed, implemented and approved by the applicable regulatory agencies. Our operations will also be subject to national, federal, state and municipal licensing requirements and other regulatory measures in each jurisdiction in which we lease Vertiport space, and we may require changes to our proposed Vertiport infrastructure to satisfy licensing or regulatory requirements. Any of the foregoing risks and challenges could adversely affect our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
The success of our business depends on the safety and positive perception of our jets, the establishment of strategic relationships, the convenience of our Vertiports and our ability to effectively market and sell RAM services.
We have not commenced commercial operations, and we expect that our success will be highly dependent on our target customers’ embrace of RAM and eVTOL vehicles, which we believe will be influenced by the public’s perception of the safety, convenience and cost of our Lilium Jets specifically but also of the industry as a whole. As a new industry, the public has low awareness of RAM and eVTOL vehicles, which will require substantial publicity and marketing campaigns in a cost-effective manner to effectively and adequately target and engage our potential customers. If we are unable to demonstrate the safety of our jets, the convenience of our jets, or the cost-effectiveness and time-savings of our RAM services as compared with other commuting, goods transportation, airport shuttle, or regional transportation options, our business may not develop as we anticipate it could, and our business, revenue and operations may be adversely affected.
Further, our sales growth will depend on our ability to develop relationships with infrastructure providers, airlines, other commercial entities, municipalities and regional governments and landowners, which may not be effective in generating anticipated sales, and marketing campaigns can be expensive and may not result in the acquisition of customers in a cost-effective manner, if at all. If conflicts arise with our strategic counterparties, the other party may act in a manner adverse to us and could limit our ability to implement our strategies. Our strategic counterparties may develop, either alone or with others, products or services in related fields that are competitive with our products and services.
We have a limited operating history and face significant challenges to develop, certify, manufacture and launch our services in a new industry, urban and regional air transportation services. Our Lilium eVTOL jet remains in development, and we do not expect to launch commercial services until 2025, if at all.
Lilium was incorporated in 2015, and we intend to operate in a newly emerging RAM market, which is continuously evolving. We have no experience as an organization in high volume manufacturing of our planned Lilium Jets or operation of a commercially viable RAM service. We cannot assure you that we or our suppliers and other commercial counterparties will be able to develop efficient, cost-efficient manufacturing capability and processes, and reliable sources of component supplies that will enable us to meet the quality, price, engineering, design and production standards, as well as the production volumes, required to successfully produce and maintain Lilium Jets and provide customers with high-quality customer service across a distributed network of Vertiports. The specifications for the Lilium Jets remain under development and we currently anticipate developing a lineup of Lilium Jets, including four-passenger and six-passenger models, with differing specifications and design targets. However , our Lilium Jets are not yet fully operational, and we might not achieve all of our performance targets for one or more of our anticipated configurations of Lilium Jets, which may impact our commercialization timeline and would materially impact our business plan and results of operations. Based on the current status of our design activities and our discussions with regulators and suppliers, as well as current supply chain dynamics, we do not expect to launch commercial services until 2025, if at all. In addition, we will not be able to launch commercial services
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until we have received Type Certification, which remains subject to our completion of certification activities, and we could experience delays in the event of additional or changing regulatory requirements. See also “— We may be unable to launch our services on the timeline, or with the scope of services, that we are anticipating” below. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and significant challenges we face as a new entrant into a new industry, including, among other things, with respect to our ability to:
● | design and produce safe, reliable and high-quality Lilium Jets and scale that production in a cost-effective manner; |
● | obtain the necessary certification and regulatory approvals in a timely manner; |
● | build a well-recognized and respected brand; |
● | build and maintain a convenient network of Vertiports and provide high quality customer service to our customers; |
● | establish and expand our customer base; |
● | successfully build an order book of aircraft and aftermarket support agreements with, among others customers, leasing companies and private aircraft customers; |
● | successfully build and operate our intra-city Lilium Network services with our anticipated partners; |
● | properly price our services and successfully anticipate the take-up rate and usage of such services by our target customers; |
● | successfully maintain and service our Lilium Network fleet, once commercialized, and maintain a good flow of spare parts and qualified technicians; |
● | attract, train and maintain pilots, mechanics and technicians trained in our jets and motivate other talented employees to remain with our company; |
● | improve and maintain our operational efficiency; |
● | maintain a reliable, secure, high-performance and scalable technology infrastructure; |
● | predict our future revenues and appropriately budget for our expenses; |
● | anticipate trends that may emerge and affect our business; |
● | anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions, including technological developments and changes in competitive landscape; |
● | secure, protect and defend our intellectual property; and |
● | navigate an evolving and complex regulatory environment. |
If we fail to adequately address any or all of these risks and challenges, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
The RAM market for eVTOL passenger and goods transport services does not exist; whether and how it develops is based on assumptions, and the RAM market may not achieve the growth potential we expect or may grow more slowly than expected.
Our estimates for the total addressable market for eVTOL RAM regional passenger and goods transport services are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including customers who have expressed interest, assumed prices at which we can offer our jets and services, assumed aircraft development, certification and production figures, our ability to manufacture, obtain regulatory
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approval and certification, and operate our jets, assumed Vertiport networks available to us in our target markets, assumed safety protocols and redundancies, our internal processes and general market conditions. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct, and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the annual total addressable market for our RAM passenger transport and goods transport services, as well as the expected growth rate for the total addressable market, may prove to be incorrect, which could negatively affect our operating revenue, costs, operations and potential profitability.
We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our pre-launch operations, and our costs will continue to be significant after we commence operations.
We will require significant capital to develop and grow our business, including designing, developing, testing, certifying and manufacturing our aircraft, building our manufacturing plant, securing leases and contractual arrangements for our Vertiports and other commercial activities, educating customers on the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of our services and building our brand. Our research and development expenses were €38.1 million, €90.3 million and €144.6 million in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively, and we expect to continue to incur significant expenses, which will impact our profitability, including continuing research and development expenses, manufacturing, maintenance and procurement costs, marketing, customer and payment system expenses, and general and administrative expenses as we scale our operations. In addition, we expect to incur significant costs in connection with operating our services, such as our Lilium Network, including scaling out our operations by building and operating a fleet of jets (including, but not limited to pilot salaries, landing fees, jet maintenance and energy costs), training staff on the operation and maintenance of our aircraft, expanding our Vertiport network and promoting our services. Our ability to become profitable in the future will not only depend on our ability to successfully market our jets and services but also our ability to control our costs. If we are unable to cost efficiently design, certify, manufacture, market, operate, sell and service our jets and operations, our margins, profitability and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
We may experience difficulties in managing our growth and commercializing our operations.
We expect to experience significant growth in the scope and nature of our manufacturing and service operations. Our ability to manage our operations and future growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, compliance programs and reporting systems. We are currently in the process of strengthening our compliance programs, including our compliance programs related to internal controls, intellectual property management, privacy and cybersecurity. We may not be able to implement improvements in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing controls, programs, responsible personnel, systems and procedures, which could have an adverse effect on our business, reputation and financial results.
We may be unable to sell our jets or launch our services on the timeline, or with the scope of services, that we are anticipating.
We need to resolve significant regulatory, operational, logistical and other challenges in order to launch our Lilium Network services or sell our aircraft under our Turnkey Enterprise or Private and Fractional Sales business models. We do not currently have infrastructure in place to operate our services, and such infrastructure may not become available at all or at the times or under conditions we anticipate. Our Lilium Jets have not yet received any EASA or FAA certification/approvals, and we are working through the details of the required airspace, operational authority and other relevant and necessary multinational, federal, national and local government approvals, which are essential to the sale of our jets and the operation of our services. In addition, the EASA and FAA certification and approval processes may be further impacted by any changes to applicable regulations in the future and may raise requirements, such as range reserve requirements, which may impact our ability to achieve our target specifications or require us to implement design changes in order to obtain such certification and approvals, and could lead to delays in our certification and commercialization timelines. Any delay in the financing, design, manufacture, and commercial launch of our Lilium Jets, any delay in the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and certifications, and any determination by a transportation or aviation authority that we cannot manufacture, sell our jets or provide or otherwise engage in the services as we contemplate could materially damage our brand, business, prospects, financial condition and operating results, and may require us to incur additional costs and create adverse publicity for our business. If we are not able to overcome these challenges, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition will be negatively impacted and our ability to grow our business will be harmed.
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Our business models have yet to be tested or regulatorily approved and any failure to commercialize our strategic plans would have an adverse effect on our operating results and business, harm our reputation and could result in substantial liabilities that exceed our resources.
Any new business will encounter challenges and difficulties, especially a business pioneer operating in a newly emerging market. Many of these challenges will be beyond our control, including substantial risks and expenses to create a new market, set up operations and educate potential customers about a new market. You should consider the likelihood of our success in light of these risks, expenses, complications and delays discussed in these Risk Factors. There is nothing at this time upon which to base an assumption that our business models will prove successful, and we may not be able to generate significant revenue, raise additional capital or operate profitably. We will continue to encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by early commercial stage companies, including scaling up our infrastructure and headcount, and may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties or delays in connection with our growth. In addition, as a result of the capital-intensive nature of our business, we expect to continue to sustain substantial operating expenses without generating sufficient revenues to cover expenditures. Any investment in our company is therefore highly speculative and could result in the loss of your entire investment.
We anticipate commencing commercial operations with our fully developed Lilium Jet, if regulatorily approved and certified, which remains under development and has yet to complete the testing and certification process. Any delay in completing testing and certification, and any design changes that may be required to be implemented in order to receive certification, would adversely impact our business plan and our financial condition.
Based on the current status of our design activities and our discussions with regulators and suppliers, as well as current supply chain dynamics, we expect to commence commercial operations in 2025, if at all, after receipt of Type Certification. We are currently engaged in a rigorous testing and design program that will be required to substantiate our certification process, and we must conduct and analyze our test flight data before we will be cleared to sell our jets or operate with commercial passengers using our eVTOL jet aircraft. Following each flight test, we analyze the resulting data and determine whether additional changes to the jet design, propulsion, electronic motor, battery and software systems are required. We are engaged in a process of carefully reviewing and implementing preliminary operating data in order to identify and implement changes to our technology demonstrator aircraft in order to ensure optimal safety protocols, battery efficiency, sufficient redundancies and maximum load capacities. For example, in February 2020, a fire occurred during maintenance in one of our two technology demonstrators, resulting in the total loss of the aircraft. Although Lilium property was damaged, no injuries or casualties resulted from the fire; however, the damage to our first Phoenix demonstrator caused significant delays in the testing and analysis as we redesigned the energy system in our next generation demonstrator, Phoenix 2, and addressed safety protocols, as further discussed under “Business of Lilium and Certain Information about Lilium — Safety and Performance.” If incidents like these occur during testing, if our remediation measures and process changes are not successfully implemented or if we experience issues with manufacturing improvements or design, certification and safety, the anticipated launch of our commercial operations could be delayed. For example, we have recently moved our Phoenix 2 technology demonstrator to the ATLAS Flight Test Center in Villacarrillo, Spain, for the next phase of high-speed testing and intend to deploy an additional demonstrator aircraft, Phoenix 3, for first flight in Spain as early as the fourth quarter of 2022. Any failures of the Phoenix 2 demonstrator to achieve anticipated flight test results in Spain could lead to further design changes, and potentially program delays, as we continue to review demonstrator operating data to optimize our aircraft design and reduce program and certification risks. We also anticipate that our Phoenix 3 demonstrator aircraft will allow us to accelerate our flight-testing campaign and increase our design learnings. If we are not able to deploy the Phoenix 3 demonstrator aircraft on the timeline anticipated, or at all, we could experience further delays in our design and certification efforts, which could also delay the anticipated launch of our commercial operations.
Any delays in the development, certification, manufacture and commercialization of our Lilium Jets and related technology, such as battery technology or electric motors, may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have previously experienced, and may experience in the future, delays or other complications in the design, certification, manufacture, launch, production and servicing ramp up of our jets and related technology. If further delays arise or recur, if our remediation measures and process changes do not continue to be successful or if we experience issues with planned manufacturing improvements or design and safety, we could experience issues in sustaining the progress towards commercialization or delays in increasing production capacity. If we encounter difficulties in scaling our production or servicing capabilities, if we fail to supply the required batteries from our suppliers that meet the required performance parameters, if our jet technologies and components do not meet our expectations or if we are unable to launch and sell our jets or operate our services before our competitors, or if such
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technologies fail to perform as expected, are inferior to those of our competitors or are perceived as less safe than those of our competitors, we may not be able to achieve our performance targets in aircraft range, speed, payload and noise or launch products on our anticipated timelines, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.
For example, we have just completed our preliminary design review (“PDR”) process, which consisted of a series of technical reviews to assess whether the aircraft architecture of the Lilium Jet would meet airworthiness requirements, deliver the performance requirements assumed in the business case and be produced at the appropriate quality levels and at scale. The results of the PDR process have resulted in us implementing certain changes to the specifications and design targets for the Lilium Jet, including certain specifications and design targets we have previously announced publicly. For example, we will reduce the number of engines from 36, as previously disclosed, to 30 engines, and we are adding a landing gear capable of conventional running landing. In addition, our next development gate, Critical Design Review (“CDR”), may lead to additional changes to our specification and design targets for the Lilium Jets, which changes could be significant. Such initial and any future changes to the specifications or design targets for the Lilium Jets driven by the PDR, CDR or our continuing development and design activities, or any delays we face in completing our CDR and related reviews, may result in delays in our ability to begin contracting with additional suppliers and the certification, production and commercialization of our Lilium Jets. Further, the announcement of changes to our previously publicized specifications and design targets could lead to reputational harm and diminished confidence in our development processes by market participants and prospective customers. If we experience any such changes or delays, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Although we hope to be among the first to bring eVTOL RAM jets and services to market, our competitors have also displayed eVTOL technology demonstrators and may gain certification and commercialize their vehicles to allow them to enter the market before us.
We face intense competition to be among the first to bring our eVTOL RAM jets and services to market, as further discussed under “Business of Lilium and Certain Information about Lilium — Our Competitive Strengths.” Some of our current and potential competitors may have greater financial, technical, manufacturing, regulatory, marketing and other resources than we do, which may allow them to deploy greater resources to the design, certification, development, regulation, manufacturing, promotion, sales, marketing and support of their eVTOL vehicle fleet and customer services. Additionally, some of our competitors may have greater name recognition, larger sales forces, broader customer and industry relationships and other resources than we do. These competitors may also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified research and development, sales, marketing and management personnel, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our jets and our customer services, and they may secure more convenient, exclusive use of Vertiports than we are able to secure. These competitors may also secure intellectual property related to eVTOL jets and related services. There has been some consolidation in the industry, with Joby Aviation’s acquisition of Uber Elevate and partnership with Uber in December 2020, and further consolidation may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. We cannot provide assurances that our eVTOL jets or services will be among the first to market. Even if our eVTOL RAM jets or services are among the first to market, we may not receive any competitive advantage, or our potential customers may not choose our jets or services over those of our competitors or over other transportation options, such as helicopters, or terrestrial passenger options like cars, trains, busses or subways or other goods delivery methods such as trucking, van, car or unmanned drones. Further, our competitors may obtain larger scale capital investment than we have access to, and they may benefit from our efforts in developing consumer and community acceptance for eVTOL aircraft, making it easier for them to obtain the permits and authorizations required to operate a service in the markets in which we intend to launch or in other markets.
Any inability to operate our Lilium Network services after commercial launch at our anticipated flight rate, on our anticipated routes or with our anticipated Vertiports could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results operations.
Even if we complete the development, certification, manufacture and commercial launch of our Lilium Network operations, we will be dependent on one jet design platform and jets that we manufacture. To be successful and satisfy the assumptions in our business plan, it will be necessary to maintain a sufficient service operation rate consisting of a minimum number of flights per day per jet across a distributed Vertiport infrastructure, which will be negatively impacted if we are not able to operate our flight services for any reason. We or our customers may be unable to operate the anticipated service operation rate for a number of reasons, such as unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, pilot error, design and electronic motoring flaws, airway access restrictions, natural disasters, changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory certifications and approvals or applications or other events that force us to suspend or delay services. At launch, we expect our jets will be certified for Visual Flight Rule conditions, which means that they will have reduced operations under adverse weather conditions such as storms, fog or heavy precipitation, with
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enhanced certification planned soon after launch. We intend to extend our certification to all-weather capabilities, although we may be unable to do so, and to receive certification, we may incur significant costs to improve the climate resiliency of our jets and our Vertiports. Our Vertiports in Florida may be located in areas susceptible to hurricanes and sudden storms, as well as related flooding, and our Vertiports in Germany may be located in areas prone to freezing and snowstorms, the occurrence of any of which could result in costs and loss of revenue. The potential physical effects of climate change, such as increased frequency and severity of storms, fog, mist, freezing conditions and other climate-related events, could affect the frequency of our operations and cause delays and cancellations to our services, which would materially impact our operations, public perception and market image and financial results. If we need to replace any components or hardware in our jets, many of which will be bespoke or custom-produced by or for us, there are limited numbers of replacement parts available, some of which have significant lead time associated with procurement or manufacture, so any unplanned failures could result in reduced jet service and significant delays to our planned growth.
Our potential customers may not generally accept the RAM industry or our services. If we are unable to convince customers of the convenience of our services and generally provide high quality customer service that will be expected of a premium service, our business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.
As a partially vertically-integrated business, we intend to provide our customers with direct customer service at branded and third party-operated Vertiports in our passenger Lilium Network business line, including sales, payment, scheduling, on-site service, pre-boarding lounges and post-boarding customer support, as well as first-mile and last-mile integration with airports, train stations, bus terminals and urban transport systems. Some of these systems we intend to operate directly, such as our customer-facing digital platform and user interface, which remains under development and may be difficult to complete with the functionality and usability that we currently intend to provide. We anticipate that other on-site customer services at our Vertiports, like security, refreshments and baggage handling, will be carried out through third parties selected by us. We may be unable to integrate these third-party services in our service offering at launch, or at all, at favorable prices, which could reduce the customer appeal of our services. Further, although such third parties may have experience in servicing other transportation services, they will initially have limited experience in servicing our jets and interfacing with our customer portal. Our service arrangements may not adequately address the service requirements of our customers to their satisfaction, or we and our third-party service operators may not have sufficient resources to meet these service requirements in a timely manner as the number of Vertiports in our network increases. Our business and our brand will be affiliated with these third-party service operators, and we may experience harm to our reputation if these operators provide our customers with poor service, negative publicity, accidents or safety incidents. Further, if we are unable to establish a widespread Vertiport network that complies with applicable laws, our customers’ receptivity to our service, ease of use and general satisfaction levels could be adversely affected, which in turn could materially and adversely affect our reputation and thus our sales, results of operations and prospects.
Lilium has limited experience negotiating commercial agreements with airline and private aircraft customers in our Turnkey Enterprise and Private and Fractional Sales business lines, and failure to effectively contract with prospective customers on acceptable terms may have an adverse impact on our business.
Our ability to grow our business, expand our relationships with prospective customers and generate revenue from our anticipated commercial operations will depend, to a significant extent, on the success of our commercial and marketing teams in identifying target customers, including airline and private aircraft customers, and our ability to effectively contract with such persons on acceptable terms. Our commercial team has limited experience in negotiating commercial agreements with prospective airline and private aircraft customers with regard to the Lilium Jet and, given the novelty of our products and the early stage of our business activities, negotiating and closing purchase and other agreements for the Lilium Jets and related aftermarket agreements with airline and private customers through our turnkey business line and other business models may require experience that we currently do not have. We plan to continue to further expand our experience in this area but may not be able to recruit and hire sufficient competent personnel with the requisite skills, which may adversely affect our ability to expand such capabilities. In addition, the hiring process can be costly and time-consuming, and new employees may require significant training and time before they achieve full productivity. Any failure to further develop and expand our commercial contracting experience could harm our growth prospects and ability to achieve or sustain profitability. For example, due to such inexperience, we may not be able to agree to future commercial contracts on acceptable terms or at all. Any such failure to expand and mature our sales and marketing function and contracting experience could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We may not be able to develop or deliver Lilium Jets with the specifications and on the timelines anticipated in any non-binding MOUs or term sheets we have entered into or any binding contractual agreements with customers or suppliers we may enter into in the future, which may lead to reputational harm, reduced revenues or cash payments, or other forms of contractual penalties and, as a result, adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Although the Lilium Jet remains under development, we have commenced the process of discussing contracts and entering into non-binding memorandums of understanding (“MOUs”) and term sheets with prospective customers, as well as other agreements and arrangements with suppliers, regarding the production, sale and commercialization of the Lilium Jet. Although we have not yet entered into any binding agreements with prospective customers and such MOUs and term sheets are non-binding, they may contain anticipated design specifications and timelines for delivery of Lilium Jets to be covered by the definitive agreements entered into pursuant to such MOUs or term sheets. In addition, at such time as we begin to enter into binding agreements with customers, or in connection with our arrangements with suppliers, we may commit to certain design specifications and parameters for the Lilium Jet that will be binding on us. If we are not able to deliver Lilium Jets or to commit to delivery of Lilium Jets on the timelines or with the specifications identified in such non-binding MOUs or term sheets or any binding contractual agreements we may enter into in the future, we may be subject to contractual penalties or liabilities associated with such delays and, in the case of MOUs or term sheets, may not be able to enter into definitive agreements for such arrangements acceptable to our counterparties on the terms contemplated by the MOUs or term sheets or at all. In addition, any failure to meet any binding or anticipated contractual commitments relating to the Lilium Jet that we may enter into in the future may lead to reputational harm, as well as a reduction in the revenues or cash payments that we anticipate receiving from such relationships. As a result, any such occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Adverse publicity stemming from any incident involving us or our competitors, or an incident involving any air travel service or unmanned flight based on autonomous technology, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Electric aircraft are based on complex technology that requires skilled pilot operation and maintenance. Like any aircraft, they may experience operational or process failures and other problems, including through adverse weather conditions, unanticipated collisions with foreign objects, manufacturing or design defects, pilot error, software malfunctions, cyber-attacks or other intentional acts that could result in potential safety risks. Any actual or perceived safety issues with our jets, other electric aircraft or eVTOL aircraft, unmanned flight based on autonomous technology or the RAM industry generally may result in significant reputational harm to our business, in addition to tort liability, increased safety infrastructure and other costs that may arise. The electric aircraft industry has had several accidents involving prototypes. Our first Phoenix demonstrator was destroyed by a ground-maintenance fire in February 2020. In addition, in February 2022, the technology demonstrator eVTOL aircraft of Joby, one of our competitors, was involved in an accident during flight testing. Eviation’s prototype eVTOL vehicle caught fire during testing in January 2020; a small battery-operated plane operated by Avinor and built by Slovenia’s Pipistrel crashed in Norway in August 2019; and an electric-motor experimental aircraft built by Siemens and Hungarian company Magnus crashed in Hungary in May 2018, killing both occupants. We are at risk of adverse publicity stemming from any public incident involving our company, our jets, our employees or our brand. If our personnel or one of jets, or the personnel or vehicles of one of our competitors, were to be involved in a public incident, accident or catastrophe, the public perception of the RAM industry or eVTOL vehicles specifically could be adversely affected, resulting in decreased customer demand for our jets or services, significant reputational harm or potential legal liability, which could cause a material adverse effect on our sales and service volumes, business and financial condition. Although our insurance partially covered the damage caused by the February 2020 ground-maintenance fire, the insurance we carry may be inapplicable or inadequate to cover any such losses from incidents, accidents or catastrophes in the future. If our insurance is inapplicable or insufficient to cover any future incidents, we may be forced to bear substantial losses from an incident or accident.
Our business plans require a significant amount of capital. In addition, our future capital needs may require us to sell additional equity or debt securities that may adversely affect the market price of our shares and dilute our shareholders or introduce covenants that may restrict our operations.
We expect our expenses and capital expenditures to continue to be significant in the foreseeable future as we expand our development, certification, production and commercial launch and that our level of expenses and capital expenditures will be significantly affected by customer demand for our services. The fact that we have a limited operating history and are entering a new industry means we have no historical data on the demand for our services. As a result, our future capital requirements may be uncertain and actual capital requirements may be different from those we currently anticipate. We may seek equity or debt financing
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to finance a portion of our capital expenditures. Such financing might not be available to us in a timely manner or on terms that are acceptable or at all.
Our ability to obtain the necessary financing to carry out our business plan is subject to a number of factors, including general market conditions and investor acceptance of our industry and business model. These factors may make the timing, amount, terms and conditions of such financing unattractive or unavailable to us. If we are unable to raise sufficient funds, we will have to significantly reduce our spending, delay or cancel our planned activities or substantially change our corporate structure. We might not be able to obtain any funding, and we might not have sufficient resources to conduct our business, both of which could mean that we would be forced to curtail or discontinue our operations.
We may seek to raise such capital through the issuance of additional shares or debt securities with conversion rights (such as convertible bonds and option rights). An issuance of additional shares or debt securities with conversion rights could potentially reduce the market price of our securities, and we currently cannot predict the amounts and terms of such future offerings.
In addition, our future capital needs and other business reasons could require us to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity or equity-linked securities could dilute our shareholders. In addition, such dilution may arise from the acquisition or investments in companies in exchange, fully or in part, for newly issued shares, options granted to our business partners or from the exercise of stock options by our employees in the context of existing or future share option programs or the issuance of shares to employees in the context of existing or future employee participation programs. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations.
If we cannot raise additional funds when we need or want them, our operations and prospects could be negatively affected.
If we are unable to successfully design and manufacture our jets, our business will be harmed.
We are expanding our technology demonstrator manufacturing facility near Munich, and we expect to begin low volume production of our initial serial model of Lilium Jet for testing and certification in 2023. We have signed supply agreements with Toray Industries, Aciturri Aerostructures, Honeywell and CUSTOMCELLS and term sheets for manufacturing and outsourcing production agreements with dozens of Tier 1 aerospace companies to produce our jet parts and components, and we are in discussions with additional manufacturing and outsourcing parties, as discussed under “Business of Lilium and Certain Information About Lilium — Production Facilities and Manufacturing Strategy.” Many of the parts and components we require will be custom-made for our jets at our production facilities or the production facilities of our outsourcing parties and suppliers; the equipment used to produce these parts and components would be costly to replace and could require substantial lead time to replace and qualify for use. We may not be able to successfully develop commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities internally or supply chain relationships with our intended Tier 1 suppliers or other suppliers. Other parts and components will be off-the-shelf products manufactured for the airline industry and are readily substituted. Our production facilities and the production facilities of our outsourcing parties and suppliers may be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including earthquakes, flooding, fire and power outages, or by health epidemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to manufacture our jets for some period of time. The inability to manufacture our jets or the backlog that could develop if our production facilities and the production facilities of our outsourcing parties and suppliers are inoperable for even a short period of time may result in delays in our intended launch or scale-out plans or harm our reputation. Although we maintain insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all.
If the Lilium Jets we build fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market and sell our services could be harmed.
Once we commence serial production, our jets may contain defects in design and manufacture that may cause them not to perform as expected or that may require repairs, service outages and design changes. Further, our Lilium Jets may be impacted by various performance factors that could impair customer satisfaction or cause delays or disruptions to our services, such as wind gusts during take-off and landing, turbulent air during flight, foreign object damage, fan stall or wing flutter, overloading, hail and bird strike, sub-optimal battery performance or excessive noise. If our Lilium Jets fail to perform as expected, we may need to delay launch of commercial operations, reduce our roll out plans and commercial expansions or limit the number of flights or geographic scope of our
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services, which could adversely affect our brand in our target markets and could adversely affect our business, prospects and results of operations.
We may not succeed in establishing, maintaining and strengthening our brand, which would materially and adversely affect customer acceptance of our services, reducing our anticipated sales and revenue.
Our business and prospects heavily depend on our ability to develop, maintain and strengthen the Lilium brand and sell consumers on the safety, convenience and cost-effectiveness of our RAM services. If we are not able to establish, maintain and strengthen our brand, we may lose the opportunity to build a critical mass of customers. Our ability to develop, maintain and strengthen the Lilium brand will depend heavily on the success of our marketing efforts. When it launches, we expect the RAM industry to be intensely competitive, with a strong first-mover advantage, and we may not be among the first to sell our jets or launch our services, or we may be unsuccessful in building, maintaining and strengthening our brand. If we do not develop and maintain a strong brand, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results will be materially and adversely impacted.
We are highly dependent on our management and senior leadership team, and the loss of our executives or other key employees could harm our ability to implement our strategic plan and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our success depends, to a large degree, on the skills of our management and senior leadership team and our ability to retain, recruit and motivate key executives and employees. Our management and senior leadership team has significant industry experience, and their knowledge and relationships would be difficult to replace. Leadership changes may occur from time to time, and we cannot predict whether significant resignations will occur or whether we will be able to recruit qualified personnel. Competition for senior executives and skilled personnel in the eVTOL and aerospace industry is intense, which means the cost of hiring, paying incentives and retaining skilled personnel may continue to increase. We need to continue to attract and retain key personnel and to recruit qualified individuals to ensure the continued growth of our business. To attract and retain personnel with appropriate skills and knowledge to support our business, we may offer a variety of benefits, which could reduce our earnings or have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The loss of the services of any executive or other key personnel, the inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel in the future or an increase in compensation benefits could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our key employees and qualified personnel, and we will require experienced pilots and qualified mechanics to operate and service our Lilium Jets via our Lilium Network business line; our operations may be severely disrupted if we lose their services.
Our success depends substantially on the continued efforts of our key employees and qualified personnel, and our operations may be severely disrupted if we lost their services. As we build our brand and become more well known, the risk that competitors or other companies may poach our talent increases. The failure to attract, integrate, train, motivate and retain these personnel could seriously harm our business and prospects.
Throughout the aviation industry, there is a shortage of trained pilots and qualified aircraft mechanics. Our services will depend on finding third parties to recruit and train pilots qualified to operate our Lilium Jets and mechanics qualified to perform the requisite maintenance activities, for which we will compete with airlines and other air mobility and transportation services, some of which will offer wages or benefit packages exceeding ours or that of third parties contracted to perform these services. We intend to work with third parties to train pilots, mechanics and technicians in our proprietary jet operation and maintenance; however, if we are unable to hire, train and retain qualified pilots and qualified mechanics, our business could be harmed, and we may be unable to implement our growth plans.
Our business may be adversely affected by labor and union activities.
Although none of our employees are currently represented by a labor union, it is common throughout the aircraft industry generally for many employees at aircraft companies to belong to a union, which can result in higher employee costs and increased risk of work stoppages. We may also directly and indirectly depend upon other companies with unionized work forces, such as parts suppliers and trucking and freight companies, and work stoppages or strikes organized by such unions could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or operating results.
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We face risks related to health epidemics, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
We face various risks related to public health issues, including epidemics, pandemics and other outbreaks, including the pandemic of respiratory illness caused by COVID-19. The impact of COVID-19, including changes in consumer and business behavior, unease with shared transport, pandemic fears and market downturns, supply chain disruptions, shortages of raw materials and finished goods, and restrictions on business and individual activities, has created significant volatility in the global economy and led to reduced economic activity as well as significant inflationary pressures. The spread of COVID-19 has also created a disruption in the manufacturing, delivery and overall supply chain of all manufacturers and suppliers and has led to a global decrease in personal and business travel around the world.
The pandemic resulted in government authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, vaccination and testing requirements and business shutdowns. These measures have, and any ongoing effects of these measures may continue to, adversely impact our employees, our ability to provide our services and the operations of our customers, suppliers and business partners and may negatively impact our sales and marketing activities. In addition, many aspects of our research and development activities cannot be conducted remotely. If these measures by government authorities remain in place for a significant period of time (or are reinstated from time to time if rescinded), they are likely to continue to adversely affect our manufacturing plans, sales and marketing activities, business and results of operations.
The spread of COVID-19 initially caused us to modify our business practices, including implementing work from home arrangements for employees able to perform their duties remotely, restricting nonessential employee travel and practicing social distancing in our research development, certification and production operations. However, with COVID-19 vaccines becoming more broadly available, many of our employees have begun returning to onsite work. There can be no assurance that future developments regarding the ongoing spread of COVID-19 will not result in a return to working from home for large portions of our workforce, including as a result of any periodic or sustained COVID-19 surges that may occur from time to time, and the reinstatement of additional COVID-19 mitigation measures. We may take further actions as may be required by government authorities or that we determine is in the best interests of our employees, customers, suppliers, vendors and business partners. There is no certainty that such actions will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the virus or otherwise be satisfactory to government authorities. If significant portions of our workforce are unable to work effectively, including due to illness, quarantines, social distancing, government actions or other restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, our operations will be impacted. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business, prospects and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including the duration and spread of the pandemic, its severity, the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, restrictions on shared or air transport and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating activities can resume. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may continue to experience an adverse impact to our business as a result of its global economic impact, including any recession that has occurred or may occur in the future. For example, despite vaccines becoming available, COVID-19’s ongoing economic and health repercussions may negatively impact our future field engineering, testing and certification processes and manufacturing capacity, as well as our commercial activities, including potential delays and restrictions on our ability to recruit and train staff. COVID-19 could also affect the operations of our suppliers and business partners, which has resulted and may continue to result in delays or disruptions in the supply chain of our components, parts and materials and which could delay the development and rollout of a Vertiport network and commercial operations, which would have an adverse impact on our business and financial condition. We also continue to experience the impact of higher inflation rates, and there can be no assurance that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our supply chain will normalize.
In addition, difficult macroeconomic conditions, such as decreases in discretionary travel, per capita income and level of disposable income, increased and prolonged unemployment, or a decline in consumer confidence as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could have a material adverse effect on the demand for our services. Under difficult economic conditions, potential customers may seek to reduce spending by forgoing our RAM services.
There are no comparable recent events that may provide guidance as to the effect of the spread of COVID-19 and a pandemic, and, as a result, the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain.
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Failure of information security and privacy concerns could subject us to penalties, damage our reputation and brand and harm our business and results of operations.
We expect to face significant challenges with respect to information security and privacy, including the storage, transmission and sharing of confidential information. We will transmit and store confidential and private information of our customers, such as personal information, including names, accounts, user IDs and passwords, and payment or transaction related information.
We intend to adopt strict information security policies and deploy advanced measures to implement the policies, including, among others, advanced encryption technologies. However, advances in technology, an increased level of sophistication of our services, an increased level of expertise of hackers, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or others can still result in a compromise or breach of the measures that we use. If we are unable to protect our systems, and hence the information stored in our systems, from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction, such problems or security breaches could cause a loss, give rise to our liabilities to the owners of confidential information or even subject us to fines and penalties. In addition, complying with various laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require that we change our business practices, including our data practices, in a manner adverse to our business.
In addition, we will need to comply with increasingly complex and rigorous regulatory standards enacted to protect business and personal data in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. For example, the European Union adopted the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018, and the State of California adopted the CCPA; additional U.S. states are likely to adopt measures similar to the CCPA in the near term. Both the GDPR and the CCPA impose additional obligations on companies regarding the handling of personal data and provide certain individual privacy rights to persons whose data is stored. Compliance with existing, proposed and recently enacted laws (including implementation of the privacy and process enhancements called for under the GDPR) and regulations can be costly; any failure to comply with these regulatory standards could subject us to legal and reputational risks.
Compliance with any additional laws and regulations could be expensive and may place restrictions on the conduct of our business and the manner in which we interact with our customers. Any failure to comply with applicable regulations could also result in regulatory enforcement actions against us, and misuse of or failure to secure personal information could also result in violation of data privacy laws and regulations, proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, and damage to our reputation and credibility, and could have a negative impact on revenues and profits.
Significant capital and other resources may be required to protect against information security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches or to comply with our privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations. The resources required may increase over time as the methods used by hackers and others engaged in online criminal activities are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving. Any failure or perceived failure by us to prevent information security breaches or to comply with privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other customer data, could cause our customers to lose trust in us and could expose us to legal claims. Any perception by the public that online transactions or the privacy of user information are becoming increasingly unsafe or vulnerable to attacks could inhibit the growth of online retail and other online services generally, which may reduce the number of orders we receive.
We are subject to cybersecurity risks to our operational systems, security systems, infrastructure, integrated software in our aircraft and customer data processed by us or third-party vendors.
We are at risk for interruptions, outages and breaches of the following systems, which are either owned by us or operated by our third-party vendors or suppliers:
● | operational systems, including business, financial, accounting, enterprise resource, product development, data processing or production processes; |
● | facility security systems; |
● | aircraft technology, including powertrain and avionics and flight control software; |
● | the integrated software in our aircraft; |
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● | customer data; or |
● | our digital platform. |
The occurrence of any such incident could disrupt our operational systems, result in loss of intellectual property, trade secrets or other proprietary or competitively sensitive information, compromise personal information of customers, employees, suppliers or others, jeopardize the security of our facilities or affect the performance of in-product technology and the integrated software in our jets.
Moreover, there are inherent risks associated with developing, improving, expanding and updating our current systems, such as the disruption of our data management, procurement, production execution, finance, supply chain and sales and service processes. These risks may affect our ability to manage our data and inventory, procure parts or supplies or manufacture, deploy, deliver and service our aircraft, adequately protect our intellectual property or achieve and maintain compliance with, or realize available benefits under, applicable laws, regulations and contracts. We cannot be sure that these systems upon which we rely, including those of our third-party vendors or suppliers, will be effectively implemented, maintained or expanded as planned. If these systems do not operate as we expect them to, we may be required to expend significant resources to make corrections or find alternative sources for performing these functions.
Any unauthorized access to or control of our jets or their systems or any loss of data could result in legal claims or proceedings. In addition, regardless of their veracity, reports of unauthorized access to our jets, their systems or data, as well as other factors that may result in the perception that our jets, their systems or data are capable of being “hacked,” could negatively affect our brand and harm our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, wars and geopolitical conflicts, any of which could significantly disrupt our operations.
Our continuing design and development activities, regulatory certification processes and ability to contract with prospective customers, suppliers and other counterparties and progress to the production, manufacturing and commercialization of the Lilium Jets could be adversely affected by events outside of our control, such as natural disasters, wars, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, health epidemics like COVID-19 and other calamities. Any such event could result in disruptions to our business and operations, create inflationary pressures that adversely affect our anticipated unit and production costs, impact our ability to successfully contract with our supply chain, have adverse impacts on our anticipated costs and commercialization timeline, and may affect our ability to raise additional capital in a timely and cost-effective manner. Existing or additional government actions, including sanctions taken in response to such events, could adversely impact the commercial and regulatory environment in which we operate. Such disruptions could similarly impact our data protection and design efforts, if any such events directly or indirectly impact our corporate, research and development or anticipated production facilities or operations. Although we have servers that are hosted in an offsite location, our backup system does not capture data on a real-time basis, and we may be unable to recover certain data in the event of a server failure. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing events may give rise to interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware, as well as impair our ability to meet our target certification and commercialization timelines, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Reliance on Third Parties
Our Lilium Jets require complex software, battery technology and other technology systems that remain in development and need to be commercialized in coordination with our vendors and suppliers to achieve serial production. The failure of advances in technology and of manufacturing at the rates and volumes we project may impact our ability to increase the volume of our production or drive down end user pricing.
Our Lilium Jets will use a substantial amount of third-party and in-house software codes and complex hardware to operate. Our software and hardware may contain errors, bugs or vulnerabilities, and our systems are subject to certain technical limitations that may compromise our ability to meet our objectives. Some errors, bugs or vulnerabilities inherently may be difficult to detect and may only
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be discovered after the code has been implemented. We have a limited frame of reference by which to evaluate the long-term performance of our software and hardware systems and our jets, and we may be unable to detect and fix any defects in the jets prior to commencing commercial operations. The development and on-going monitoring of such advanced technologies is inherently complex, and we will need to coordinate with our vendors and suppliers in order to complete full-scale production. Our potential inability to develop the necessary software and technology systems may harm our competitive position or delay the certification or manufacture of our jets.
We are relying on third-party suppliers to develop a number of emerging technologies for use in our products, including lithium-ion battery technology. Although many of these technologies are already commercially viable, and initial measurements of our battery supplier have yielded promising results, the final technology of our batteries and other sub-systems is still under development and the design is not yet finalized, and we are not sure when such design will be finalized. The final cell design of our suppliers may not be able to meet the safety, technological, economical or operational requirements to support the regulatory requirements and performance assumed in our business plan. Any failure of our battery technologies to meet anticipated performance parameters may require us to modify the design specifications of our aircraft or to use alternative battery technologies sourced from other third-party suppliers, any of which could result in delays in the completion of our certification and commercialization activities, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are also relying on third-party suppliers to commercialize these technologies (such as battery cell technology) at the volume and costs we require to launch and ramp-up our production. Our suppliers may not be able to meet the production timing, volume requirements or cost requirements we have assumed in our business plan. Our third party suppliers could face other challenges, such as the lack of raw materials or machinery, the breakdown of tools in production or the malfunctioning of technology as they ramp up production. As a result, our business plan could be significantly impacted, and we may incur significant delays in production and full commercialization, which could adversely affect our business, prospects and results of operations.
The success of our business will depend in part on our ability to realize the strategic relationships for which we have entered into non-binding MOUs and term sheets with various third parties.
We have entered into non-binding MOUs or term sheets with certain prospective strategic counterparties, including Brazilian airline Azul and NetJets, pursuant to which we anticipate negotiating final commercial terms and ultimately entering into definitive agreements to expand the commercialization of the Lilium Jet in launch markets and business models. These non-binding arrangements, and similar arrangements that we may enter into in the future, are an important part of our growth strategy and any definitive agreements we negotiate and enter into on the basis of such MOUs and term sheets will be important to our ability to achieve and maintain profitability. In connection with such arrangements, it is common for the parties to initially agree to a non-binding MOU or term sheet, to be followed by definitive agreements if the parties are able to align on remaining commercial terms and satisfy certain conditions. The failure to enter into definitive agreements with the counterparties to our MOUs or term sheets, or the termination of the MOUs or term sheets, may have a material adverse effect on our business and could result in changes to our business strategy, reputational harm and a negative impact to the price of our Class A Shares, including to the extent we are not able to realize on previously announced plans or arrangements.
Further, such developments could require us to reassess or alter our business strategy, which could delay the commercialization of the Lilium Jets. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our Lilium Jets will make use of lithium-ion battery cells, which have been observed to catch fire or vent smoke and flame.
We anticipate the battery packs within our Lilium Jets will use lithium-ion cells. On rare occasions, lithium-ion cells can rapidly release the energy they contain by venting smoke and flames in a manner that can ignite nearby materials as well as other lithium-ion cells. While the battery pack is designed to contain any single cell’s release of energy without spreading to neighboring cells, a failure of battery packs in our jets could occur or batteries could catch fire during production or testing, which could result in bodily injury or death and property damage and could subject us to lawsuits, regulatory challenges or redesign efforts, all of which would be time consuming and expensive and could harm our brand image. Also, negative public perceptions regarding the suitability of lithium-ion cells for aircraft applications, the social and environmental impacts of cobalt mining or any future incident involving lithium-ion cells, such as a vehicle or other fire, could seriously harm our business and reputation.
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We will rely on third-party suppliers and strategic parties for the provision and development of key emerging technologies, components and materials used in our Lilium Jet, such as the lithium-ion batteries that will power the jets, a significant number of which may be single or limited source suppliers. If any of these prospective suppliers or strategic parties choose to not do business with us at all, or insist on terms that are commercially disadvantageous, we may have significant difficulty in procuring and producing our jets, and our business prospects would be harmed.
Third-party suppliers and strategic parties will provide key components and technology to the Lilium Jets. Collaborations with strategic parties are necessary to successfully commercialize our existing and future products. If we are unable to identify or enter into agreements with strategic parties for the development of key technology or if such strategic parties insist on terms that are commercially disadvantageous, including for example the ability to freely commercialize jointly owned intellectual property, we may have significant difficulty in procuring and producing our jets or technologies, components or materials used in our jets. The terms of our existing collaboration agreements typically include one or more of the following: joint ownership of the new intellectual property; assignment of the new intellectual property to either us or the collaborator; either exclusive or non-exclusive licenses to the new intellectual property to us or the collaborator; and other restrictions on our or our collaborator’s use of developments, such as non-competes and time or milestone limited exclusivity provisions. If we are unable to negotiate exclusivity regarding the technology developed under these collaborations, our competitors may be able to access the technology that is owned, solely or jointly, by our collaborator.
In addition to our collaborations, we will be substantially reliant on our relationships with our suppliers for the parts and components in our jets. If any of these prospective suppliers choose to not do business with us at all, or insist on terms, including pricing and payment terms, that are commercially disadvantageous, we may have significant difficulty in procuring and producing our jets, and our business prospects would be harmed. If our suppliers experience any delays in providing us with or developing necessary components, or if our suppliers are unable to deliver necessary components in a timely manner and at prices, quality and volumes acceptable to us, we could experience delays in manufacturing or servicing our jets, delivering on our timelines and launching and scaling up as anticipated, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects and operating results.
While we plan to obtain components from multiple sources whenever possible, we may purchase many of the components used in our Lilium Jets from a single source. While we believe that we may be able to establish alternate supply relationships and can obtain replacement components for our single source components, we may be unable to do so in the short term (or at all) at prices or quality levels that are acceptable to us. In addition, we could experience delays if our suppliers do not meet agreed upon timelines or experience capacity constraints. Any disruption in the supply of components, whether or not from a single source supplier, could temporarily disrupt production or servicing of our jets until an alternative supplier is able to supply the required material. Changes in business conditions, unforeseen circumstances, governmental changes, and other factors beyond our control or which we do not presently anticipate could also affect our suppliers’ ability to deliver components to us on a timely basis. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Any disruptions to our supply chain, significant increase in component costs, or shortages of critical components could adversely affect our business and result in increased costs.
Any disruptions to our supply chain, significant increase in component costs or shortages of critical components could adversely affect our business and result in increased costs. Such a disruption could occur as a result of any number of events, including, but not limited to, an extended closure of or any slowdown at our supplier’s plants or shipping delays due to efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 or implementation of post-COVID-19 policies or practices, war and economic sanctions against third parties, including those arising from the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, market shortages due to surge in demand for any particular part or component, increases in prices or impact of inflation, the imposition of regulations, quotas or embargoes on components, labor stoppages, transportation delays or failures affecting the supply chain and shipment of materials and finished goods, third-party interference in the integrity of the parts and components sourced through the supply chain, the unavailability of raw materials, severe weather conditions, adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters, geopolitical developments, war or terrorism and disruptions in utilities, trade embargos and other services. Further, the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 situation and broader inflationary environment has had, and may continue to have, adverse impacts on our supply chain, which could put pressure on our unit costs in the future, and increased upfront payments to our suppliers and earlier phasing of those payments may put pressure on our non-recurring costs in future periods. In addition, any future updates or modifications to the anticipated design of the Lilium Jet may increase the number of parts and components we would be required to source and increase the complexity of our supply chain
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management. Failure to effectively manage the supply of parts and components could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
If any of our suppliers become economically distressed or go bankrupt, we may be required to provide substantial financial support or take other measures to ensure supplies of components or materials, which could increase our costs, affect our liquidity or cause production disruptions.
We expect to purchase various types of equipment, raw materials and manufactured component parts from our suppliers. If these suppliers experience substantial financial difficulties, cease operations or otherwise face business disruptions, we may be required to provide substantial financial support to ensure supply continuity or would have to take other measures to ensure components and materials remain available. Any disruption could affect our ability to deliver jets and could increase our costs and negatively affect our liquidity and financial performance.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
We may not be able to prevent others from unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position.
We may not be able to prevent others from unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position. We rely on a combination of patents, trade secrets (including know-how), employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, copyrights, trademarks, intellectual property licenses and other contractual rights to establish and protect our rights in our technology. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties, employees and contractors may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights or those rights are not enforceable. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly, and the steps we have taken or will take are aimed to prevent misappropriation. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources, including significant amounts of time from our key executives and management, and may not have the desired outcome.
Patent, trademark and trade secret laws vary significantly throughout the world. Some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. and European Union. Therefore, we may not be able to secure certain intellectual property rights in some jurisdictions, and our intellectual property rights may not be as strong or as easily enforced outside of the U.S. and the European Union. Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights could result in our competitors offering similar products, potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage and a decrease in our anticipated revenue, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
Our patent applications may not issue as patents, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours.
We cannot be certain that we are the first inventor of the subject matter to which we have filed or plan to file a particular patent application or if we are the first party to file such a patent application. If another party has filed a patent application for the same subject matter as we have, or similar subject matter is otherwise publicly disclosed, we may not be entitled to the protection sought by the patent application.
Further, the scope of protection of issued patent claims is often difficult to determine. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will issue or that our issued patents will afford protection against competitors with similar technology or will cover certain aspects of our products. In addition, our competitors may design around our issued patents, which may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition or operating results.
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As our patents may expire and may not be extended, our patent applications may not be granted and our patent rights may be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope, our patent rights may not protect us effectively. In particular, we may not be able to prevent others from developing or exploiting competing technologies.
We cannot assure you that we will be granted patents pursuant to our pending applications or those we plan to file in the future. Even if our patent applications succeed and we are issued patents in accordance with them, these patents could be contested, circumvented or invalidated in the future. In addition, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with meaningful protection or competitive advantages. The claims under any patents that issue from our patent applications may not be broad enough to prevent others from developing technologies that are similar or that achieve results similar to ours. The intellectual property rights of others could also bar us from licensing and exploiting any patents that issue from our pending applications. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the fields in which we have developed and are developing our technology. These patents and patent applications might have priority over our patent applications and could result in refusal of or invalidation our patent applications. Finally, in addition to those who may claim priority, any of our existing or pending patents may also be challenged by others on the basis that they are otherwise invalid or unenforceable.
We may need to defend ourselves against patent or trademark infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and would cause us to incur substantial costs.
Companies, organizations or individuals, including our competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell, lease or market our jets or components, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive communications from holders of patents (including non-practicing entities or other patent licensing organizations), trademarks or other intellectual property regarding their proprietary rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise assert their rights and urge us to take licenses. Our applications and uses of trademarks relating to our design, software or artificial intelligence technologies could be found to infringe upon existing trademark ownership and rights. In addition, if we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:
● | cease manufacturing our jets, or discontinue use of certain components in our jets, or offering services that incorporate or use the challenged intellectual property; |
● | pay substantial damages; |
● | seek a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; |
● | redesign our jets or other customer service offerings; and/or |
● | establish and maintain alternative branding for our jets or services. |
In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology or other intellectual property right, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs, negative publicity and diversion of resources and management attention. Similarly, if our suppliers become party to suits and claims alleging violations or infringements upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be unable to obtain necessary components or technology, and the production and commercialization of the Lilium Jet may be materially delayed, or we may incur substantial costs finding alternatives.
We may be subject to damages resulting from claims that we or our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of our employees’ former employers.
Many of our employees were previously employed by other aeronautics, aircraft or transportation companies or by suppliers to these companies. We may be subject to claims that we or these employees have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we
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fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key personnel or our work product could hamper or prevent our ability to commercialize our products, which could severely harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs, delays and demand on management resources.
Risks Related to the Regulatory Environment in which Lilium Operates
We are subject to substantial regulation and unfavorable changes to, or our failure to comply with, these regulations could substantially harm our business and operating results.
Our eVTOL jets and the operation of our services by us or in certain jurisdictions by our local AOCs or airline customers and third-party operators will be subject to substantial regulation in the jurisdictions in which we intend our eVTOL jets to operate. We expect to incur significant costs in complying with these regulations. Regulations related to the eVTOL industry, including aircraft certification, production certification, passenger operation, flight operation, airspace operation, security regulation and Vertiport regulation are currently evolving, and we face risks associated with the development and evolution of these regulations.
Our jets must be certified with the FAA and EASA as a light aircraft, as further discussed under “Business of Lilium and Certain Information About Lilium — Aircraft Certification.” Operating our jets in the U.S. and Europe and providing our services must comply with U.S. and European laws, regulations, safety standards and customer service regulations. Rigorous testing and the use of approved materials and equipment are among the requirements for achieving certification. Our failure to obtain or maintain certification for our jets or infrastructure would have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. In addition to obtaining and maintaining certification of our jets, we and our third-party air carriers will need to obtain and maintain operational authority necessary to provide our envisioned RAM services. A transportation or aviation authority may determine that we and/or our third-party air carriers cannot manufacture, provide or otherwise engage in the services as we contemplated. The inability to implement our envisioned services could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
To the extent the laws change, our jets and our services may not comply with applicable U.S., European, international, federal, state or local laws, which would have an adverse effect on our business. Compliance with changing regulations could be burdensome, time consuming and expensive. To the extent compliance with new regulations is cost prohibitive, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.
When we expand beyond the U.S. and the European Union, such as any prospective expansion into Brazil or China, there will be Brazilian and Chinese laws and regulations, respectively, we must comply with, and there may be laws and regulations in other jurisdictions we have not yet entered or laws we are unaware of in jurisdictions we have entered that may restrict our operations or business practices or that are difficult to interpret and change rapidly. Continued regulatory limitations and other obstacles interfering with our business operations could have a negative and material impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Third-party air carriers will operate our Lilium Network services in the U.S., Europe and Brazil using the Lilium Jets. These third-party air carriers are subject to substantial regulation and laws, and unfavorable changes to, or the third-party air carriers’ failure to comply with, these regulations and/or laws could substantially harm our business and operating results.
Non-U.S. citizen air carriers cannot engage in air transportation services within the U.S., and there may be similar laws in other applicable markets. Accordingly, our strategy for service offerings in the U.S. and the European and Brazilian markets involves strategic relationships with third-party U.S. citizen (as “citizen of the United States” is defined in 49 U.S.C. § 40102(a)(15)) or EU or Brazilian air carriers, respectively, which will be responsible for providing the aircraft services using the Lilium Jets. These third-party air carriers are subject to substantial regulation and laws, and unfavorable changes to, or the third-party air carriers’ failure to comply with, these regulations or laws could substantially harm our business and operating results. Further, although third-party air carriers may have experience in providing air transportation services, they will initially have limited experience in operating our Lilium Jets. Our arrangements with third-party air carriers may not adequately address the operating requirements of our customers to their satisfaction. Given that our business and our brand will be affiliated with these third-party air carriers, we may experience harm to our reputation if these third-party air carriers provide customers with poor service, receive negative publicity or experience accidents or safety incidents. Further, under U.S. law and the policy of the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. citizens must have actual control of U.S. air carriers, and thus there are limits on our ability to exercise control over any U.S. air carriers we collaborate with in
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connection with our U.S. operations. Any determination by a transportation or aviation authority that we cannot provide or otherwise engage in the services as we contemplated could materially affect the services we intend to offer and could adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition, business and prospects.
We are or will be subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to administrative, civil and criminal fines and penalties, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
We are or will be subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws and regulations in various jurisdictions in which we conduct or in the future may conduct activities, including the U.S. FCPA, European anti-bribery and corruption laws and other anti-corruption laws and regulations. The FCPA and European anti-bribery and corruption laws prohibit us and our officers, directors, employees and business partners acting on our behalf, including agents, from corruptly offering, promising, authorizing or providing anything of value to a “foreign official” for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. The FCPA also requires companies to make and keep books, records and accounts that accurately reflect transactions and dispositions of assets and to maintain a system of adequate internal accounting controls. A violation of these laws or regulations could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation. Our policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these regulations may not be sufficient, and our directors, officers, employees, representatives, consultants, agents and business partners could engage in improper conduct for which we may be held responsible.
Non-compliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering or financial and economic sanctions laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations and severe administrative, civil and criminal sanctions, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation. In addition, the imposition of and changes in economic sanctions laws in the future could adversely impact our business and investments in our Class A Shares.
We will be subject to governmental export and import control laws and regulations as we expand our suppliers and commercial operations outside the U.S. and Europe.
Our Lilium Jets will be subject to export control and import laws and regulations, which must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. For example, we may require licenses to import or export our jets, components or technologies to our production facilities and may experience delays in obtaining the requisite licenses to do so. Audits in connection with the application for licenses may increase areas of noncompliance that could result in delays or additional costs. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to additional audits, substantial civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export or import privileges, fines, which may be imposed on us and responsible employees or managers, and, in extreme cases, the incarceration of responsible employees or managers, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a company based outside of the U.S., we are subject to economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with international operations.
As a company registered in the Netherlands with our headquarters in Germany, our business is subject to risks associated with conducting business outside of the U.S. Many of our suppliers and service providers are located outside the U.S. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:
● | economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in particular non-U.S. economies and markets; |
● | differing and changing regulatory requirements for product approvals; |
● | differing jurisdictions could present different issues for securing, maintaining or obtaining freedom to operate in such jurisdictions; |
● | potentially reduced protection for intellectual property and proprietary rights; |
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● | difficulties in compliance with different, complex and changing laws, regulations and court systems of multiple jurisdictions and compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws, treaties and regulations; |
● | changes in non-U.S. regulations and customs, tariffs and trade barriers; |
● | changes in non-U.S. currency exchange rates of the pound sterling, U.S. dollar, euro and currency controls; |
● | changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic environment; |
● | trade protection measures, import or export licensing requirements or other restrictive actions by governments; |
● | differing reimbursement regimes and price controls in certain non-U.S. markets; |
● | negative consequences from changes in tax laws; |
● | compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad, including, for example, the variable tax treatment in different jurisdictions of options granted under our share option schemes or equity incentive plans; |
● | workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the U.S.; |
● | litigation or administrative actions resulting from claims against us by current or former employees or consultants individually or as part of class actions, including claims of wrongful terminations, discrimination, misclassification or other violations of labor law or other alleged conduct; |
● | difficulties associated with staffing and managing international operations, including differing labor relations; |
● | production shortages resulting from any events affecting raw material supply or manufacturing capabilities abroad; and |
● | business interruptions resulting from geo-political actions, including war and terrorism, or natural disasters including earthquakes, typhoons, floods and fires. |
Additionally, due to the international scope of our operations, fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly between the euro and the U.S. dollar, may adversely affect us. Although we are headquartered in Germany, we source many critical services in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. Further, potential future revenue may be derived from abroad, particularly from the U.S. and Brazil. As a result, our business and the price of our Class A Shares may be affected by fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates not only between the U.S. dollar and the euro, which may have a significant impact on our results of operations and cash flows from period to period. Currently, we do not have any exchange rate hedging arrangements in place. Our overall success as a global business depends on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so without incurring unexpected costs. These and other factors could harm our operations and, consequently, materially impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Associated with Lilium Being a U.S. Public Company
We will need to improve our operational and financial systems to support our expected growth, increasingly complex business arrangements, and rules governing revenue and expense recognition, and any inability to do so will adversely affect our billing and reporting.
To manage the expected growth of our operations and increasing complexity, we will need to improve our operational and financial systems, procedures and controls and continue to increase systems automation to reduce reliance on manual operations. Any inability to do so will affect our manufacturing operations, customer billing and reporting. Our current and planned systems, procedures and controls may not be adequate to support our complex arrangements and the rules governing revenue and expense recognition for our future operations and expected growth. Delays or problems associated with any improvement or expansion of our
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operational and financial systems and controls could adversely affect our relationships with our customers, cause harm to our reputation and brand and could also result in errors in our financial and other reporting. We expect that complying with these rules and regulations will substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. The increased costs will increase our net loss. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future. Failure to remediate such material weaknesses in the future or to maintain an effective system of internal control could impair our ability to comply with the financial reporting and internal controls requirements for publicly traded companies.
As a U.S. public company, we operate in an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, which requires us to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Nasdaq regulations, SEC rules and regulations, expanded disclosure requirements, accelerated reporting requirements and more complex accounting rules. Company responsibilities required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include establishing corporate oversight and adequate internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent financial fraud.
In connection with the preparation and audit of our consolidated financial statements, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weaknesses relate to (i) lack of consistent and proper application of accounting processes and procedures, effectively designed control processes and segregation of duties, (ii) insufficient design, implementation and operating effectiveness of information technology general controls for information systems that are significant to the preparation of our financial statements, (iii) lack of review and supervision and (iv) insufficient resources with an appropriate level of technical accounting and SEC reporting expertise.
We are in the process of designing and implementing measures to improve our internal control over financial reporting to remediate the material weaknesses, including by implementing new information technology and systems for the preparation of the financial statements, implementing additional review procedures within our accounting and finance department, hiring additional staff and engaging external accounting experts to support improving our accounting processes and procedures and supplement our internal resources in our computation processes. While we are designing and implementing measures to remediate the material weaknesses, we cannot predict the success of such measures or the outcome of our assessment of these measures at this time. These measures may not remediate the deficiencies in internal control or prevent additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Our failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in errors in our financial statements that may lead to a restatement of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations.
We anticipate that the process of building our accounting and financial functions and infrastructure will result in substantial costs, including significant additional professional fees and internal costs. Any disruptions or difficulties in implementing or using such a system could adversely affect our controls and harm our business. Moreover, such disruption or difficulties could result in unanticipated costs and diversion of management’s attention.
In addition, as a public company, we are subject to Sections 302 and 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and will be required to provide management’s attestation on internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ending December 31, 2022. Our management continues to develop and refine processes to be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that are applicable to us as a public company. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including Section 404(a) requiring management’s attestation on internal control over financial reporting, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and results of operations could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
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Our management has limited experience in operating a U.S. public company.
Our management has limited experience in the management of a U.S. public company. Our management team may not successfully or effectively manage our transition to a U.S. public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under U.S. federal securities laws. Their limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities, which will result in less time being devoted to the management and growth of the combined company. We may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal controls over financial reporting required of U.S. public companies. The development and implementation of the standards and controls necessary for us to achieve the level of accounting standards required of a public company in the U.S. may require costs greater than expected. It is possible that we will be required to expand our employee base and hire additional employees to support our operations as a public company, which will increase our operating costs in future periods.
Our failure to meet Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements could result in a delisting of our shares.
If we fail to satisfy Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our securities. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of our Class A Shares and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our Class A Shares when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by us to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow our Class A Shares to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our securities, prevent our securities from dropping below Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or publish negative reports about our business, our Class A Share price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A Shares will depend on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Currently, we have limited analyst coverage and may not obtain additional analyst coverage in the future or may lose the analyst coverage we have now. We do not have any control over such analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover Lilium downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, the price of our Class A Shares would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of Lilium or fail to regularly publish reports on Lilium, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause the price or trading volume of our Class A Shares to decline.
We are an “emerging growth company,” and our reduced SEC reporting requirements may make our Class A shares less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of (i) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the closing of the Business Combination, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of Lilium Shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of our prior second fiscal quarter, and (ii) the date on which we issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. We intend to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to most other public companies, such as an exemption from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring our independent registered public accounting firm provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our securities less attractive because we intend to rely on certain of these exemptions and benefits under the JOBS Act. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active, liquid and/or orderly trading market for our Class A Shares and the market price and trading volume of our Class A Shares may be more volatile and decline significantly.
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As a foreign private issuer, we will be exempt from a number of rules under the U.S. securities laws and will be permitted to file less information with the SEC than a U.S. domestic public company, which may limit the information available to our shareholders.
We are a foreign private issuer, as such term is defined in Rule 405 under the Securities Act. As a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to all of the disclosure requirements applicable to public companies organized within the U.S. For example, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that regulate disclosure obligations and procedural requirements related to the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations applicable to a security registered under the Exchange Act, including the U.S. proxy rules under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. As long as we are a foreign private issuer, we will not be required to obtain shareholder approval for certain dilutive events, such as the establishment or material amendment of certain equity-based compensation plans, we will not be required to provide detailed executive compensation disclosure in our periodic reports, and we will be exempt from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, our officers and directors will be exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and related rules with respect to their purchases and sales of our securities.
We are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. domestic public companies and will not be required to file quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K under the Exchange Act.
As a foreign private issuer, we will be permitted to follow home country practice in lieu of certain Nasdaq corporate governance rules, including those that require listed companies to have a majority of independent directors (although all of the members of the audit committee must be independent under the Exchange Act) and independent director oversight of executive compensation, nomination of directors and corporate governance matters, have regularly scheduled executive sessions with only independent directors; and adopt and disclose a code of ethics for directors, officers and employees. Accordingly, our shareholders may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of listed companies that are subject to all of the applicable corporate governance requirements.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Shares
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, shareholders could lose confidence in our financial and other public reporting, which is likely to negatively affect our business and the market price of our Class A Shares.
Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in our implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing conducted by us, or any testing conducted by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inferior internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which is likely to negatively affect our business and the market price of our Class A Shares.
We are required to disclose changes made in our internal controls and procedures, and our management will be required to assess the effectiveness of these controls annually. However, for as long as we are an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We could be an “emerging growth company” for up to five years. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation, which could negatively affect our business and the market price of our Class A Shares. See also “— We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future. Failure to remediate such material weaknesses in the future or to maintain an effective system of internal control could impair our ability to comply with the financial reporting and internal controls requirements for publicly traded companies” above.
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The market price and trading volume of our Class A Shares may be volatile and could decline significantly.
Stock markets, including Nasdaq, on which our Class A Shares are listed, have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations. Even if an active, liquid and orderly trading market develops and is sustained for our Class A Shares, the market price of our Class A Shares may be volatile and could decline significantly. In addition, the trading volume in our Class A Shares may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. If the market price of our Class A Shares declines significantly, you may be unable to resell your Class A Shares at or above the price you purchased them for. We cannot assure you that the market price of our Class A Shares will not fluctuate widely or decline significantly in the future in response to a number of factors, including, among others, the following:
● | the realization of any of the risk factors presented in this prospectus; |
● | actual or anticipated differences in our estimates, or in the estimates of analysts, for our revenues, results of operations, liquidity or financial condition; |
● | our ability to market our products and technology on a timely basis; |
● | additions and departures of key personnel, including members of the Board or management; |
● | failure to comply with the requirements of the SEC or Nasdaq; |
● | failure to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or other laws or regulations; |
● | changes in laws and regulations affecting our business; |
● | commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us; |
● | changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances, sales or resales, or anticipated issuances, sales or resales, of our Class A Shares; |
● | sales of substantial amounts of Class A Shares by our directors, executive officers or significant shareholders or the perception that such sales could occur; |
● | sales of substantial amounts of Class A Shares following the release of transfer restrictions on the sale of Class A Shares or upon the exercise or settlement of equity awards implemented in connection with the Business Combination or otherwise; |
● | the performance and market valuations of other similar companies; |
● | broad disruptions in the financial markets, including sudden disruptions in the credit markets; |
● | material and adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the markets and the broader global economy; |
● | speculation in the press or investment community, or inaccurate or unfavorable research or reports that may be published about us; |
● | actual, potential or perceived control, accounting or reporting problems; and |
● | changes in accounting principles, policies and guidelines. |
In the past, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their shares or warrants. This type of litigation could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on us.
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If securities or industry analysts publish inaccurate or unfavorable research or cease publishing research about us, the price and trading volume of our Class A Shares could decline significantly.
The market for our Class A Shares depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades its opinions about our Class A Shares or ceases publishing about us regularly, demand for our Class A Shares could decrease, which could cause the market prices and trading volume of our Class A Shares to decline significantly. In addition, if securities or industry analysts or other market participants or investors publish inaccurate reports or unfavorable research about us, such as occurred on March 14, 2022, this could adversely affect our reputation or harm investor confidence in our company. In addition, the publishing of any such reports or research could cause volatility in the trading volumes of our Class A Shares and cause the market price of our Class A Shares to decline significantly.
Future issuances of preferred shares or other equity securities may adversely affect us, including the market price of our Class A Shares, and may be dilutive to existing shareholders.
In the future, we may issue preferred shares or other equity ranking senior to our Class A Shares.
Preferred shares have, and those other securities will generally have, priority upon liquidation. Such securities also may be governed by an instrument containing covenants restricting our operating flexibility. Additionally, any convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future may have rights, preferences and privileges more favorable than those of our Class A Shares. Because our decision to issue equity in the future will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, nature or success of our future capital raising efforts. As a result, future capital raising efforts may reduce the market price of our Class A Shares and be dilutive to existing shareholders.
In addition, exercises of significant amounts of options or the settlement of significant amounts of equity awards at one time, including any related sales of Class A Shares as a result of sell-to-cover transactions effected to address any associated tax liabilities or any discretionary sales by the holders, could also reduce the market price of our Class A Shares. Under our Legacy Stock Option Program, holders were subject to a 180 day lock-up period following the Business Combination and were first permitted to exercise their options as of March 14, 2022. In addition, vested stock options under the Legacy Stock Option Program generally will be required to be exercised only during certain exercise windows during each quarter (with the exact dates during each quarterly to be determined by Lilium). If there are significant exercises of options or settlement of equity awards in a limited period of time, such issuances would be dilutive to existing holders of outstanding shares. In addition, significant sales of Class A Shares at one time as a result of associated sell-to-cover transactions or discretionary sales effected in connection with such exercises or settlement, for example as occurred on March 14, 2022, when a substantial volume of Class A Shares were sold in a short period of time, including to cover holders’ tax obligations associated with the exercise and/or settlement of certain options and RSUs, may result in trading volatility and reduce the market price of our Class A Shares.
The future exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of Class A Shares.
Certain Lilium shareholders have registration rights for restricted securities under the terms of our registration rights agreement with the Sponsor and certain other shareholders of Lilium, which provides for customary “demand” and “piggyback” registration rights for certain shareholders. In addition, we have entered into a registration rights agreement granting customary registration rights to Azul in respect of the Class A Shares issuable upon the exercise of the Azul Warrants. Sales of a substantial number of Class A Shares in the public market pursuant to the resale registration statement of which this prospectus is a part, or any resale registration statement we may file in the future, could occur at any time any such registration statement remains effective. In addition, certain registration rights holders can request underwritten offerings to sell their securities. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our Class A Shares. See also “Description of Securities — Registration Rights and Lock-Up Arrangements.”
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
We have incurred and are likely to continue incurring significant tax losses, which may be limited in their usability under German and other tax laws, in particular following significant shareholder changes. Although we do not expect the Business Combination nor any of the ownership changes in the course of past financing rounds to result in a forfeiture of our German tax loss attributes, the
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realization of future tax savings from such tax loss attributes depends on the tax authorities’ acceptance of their continued availability and our ability to generate future taxable income in Germany against which such losses can be offset.
The Company intends to operate so as to be treated as exclusively resident in Germany for tax purposes, but the relevant tax authorities may treat it as also being tax resident elsewhere.
The Company is not a company incorporated in Germany. Therefore, whether it is resident in Germany for German tax purposes will depend on whether its “effective management” is located (in whole or in part) in Germany. The test of “effective management” is largely a question of fact and degree based on all the circumstances, rather than a question of law. Nevertheless, the decisions of the German courts and the published practice of the German tax authorities suggest that the Company is likely to be regarded as having become a German resident on this basis from the closing of the Business Combination and remaining so if, as the Company intends (i) most meetings of the Board are held in Germany with a majority of directors present in Germany for those meetings, (ii) at those meetings there are full discussions of, and decisions are made regarding, the key strategic issues affecting the Company and its subsidiaries, (iii) those meetings are properly minute, (iv) the majority of the directors of the Company, together with supporting staff, are based in Germany and carry out the day-to-day management incumbent upon them, i.e. the actual, organizational and legal acts involved in the ordinary operation of the Company, from Germany and (v) the Company has permanent staffed office premises in Germany.
Even if the Company is resident in Germany for tax purposes on this basis, as expected, it would nevertheless not be treated as a German resident if (a) it were to be concurrently resident in another jurisdiction (applying the tax residence rules of that jurisdiction) that has a tax treaty with Germany and (b) there is a tie-breaker provision in that tax treaty, which allocates exclusive residence to that other jurisdiction.
Even if its “effective management” is in Germany, as expected, the Company will be resident in the Netherlands for Dutch tax purposes on the basis that it is a company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands. As a result, the Netherlands will be allowed to levy corporate income tax on the Company as a Dutch-resident taxpayer, and dividends distributed by the Company will be subject to Dutch dividend withholding tax. Nonetheless, the Company will be regarded as solely resident in Germany under the 2012 Convention between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and capital gains (the “DE – NL tax treaty”) as long as its “effective management” is in Germany. The Company anticipates that, so long as the factors listed in the second preceding paragraph are present at all material times, the German and Dutch competent authorities will consider the Company to be solely resident in Germany. This assessment, however, cannot be guaranteed. If there is a change over time to the facts upon which an assessment by (any of) the competent authorities is based, such assessment may also change, which could give rise to the risk that both Germany and the Netherlands would levy dividend withholding tax on distributions by us, as well as the risk of double taxation on our profits.
In addition, the assessment of our sole tax residency in Germany for purposes of the DE – NL tax treaty is subject to the application of the provisions on tax residency as stipulated in the DE – NL tax treaty (as amended from time to time). The Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the “MLI”), which Germany and the Netherlands have (among other countries) entered into, should not, as of the date of this prospectus, affect the DE – NL tax treaty’s rules regarding tax residency. Germany does not apply the MLI to the DE – NL tax treaty and, regarding double tax treaties to which it applies the MLI, Germany reserves the right to not apply (opt-out) of the tax residency rules of the MLI (Art. 28 MLI in conjunction with Art. 4(3)(a) MLI). However, any changes to the DE – NL tax treaty or the application of the MLI could give rise to the risk that both Germany and the Netherlands would levy dividend withholding tax on distributions by us, as well as the risk of double taxation on our profits.
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The rights of shareholders in companies subject to Dutch corporate law differ in material respects from the rights of shareholders of corporations incorporated in the U.S.
We are a public limited liability company incorporated under Dutch law. Our corporate affairs are governed by our articles of association, our internal rules and policies and by the laws governing companies incorporated in the Netherlands. The rights of shareholders may be different from the rights and obligations of shareholders in companies governed by the laws of U.S. jurisdictions. The role of the management board in a Dutch company is also materially different, and cannot be compared to, the role of a board of directors in a corporation incorporated in the U.S. In the performance of their duties, our management board is required by Dutch law to consider the interests of our company and the sustainable success of our business, with an aim to creating long-term value, taking into account the interests of our shareholders, our employees and other stakeholders of the Company, in all cases with due observation of the principles of reasonableness and fairness. It is possible that some of these parties will have interests that are different from, or in addition to, your interests as a shareholder.
We are not obligated to, and do not, comply with all best practice provisions of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code.
We will be subject to the DCGC. The DCGC contains both principles and best practice provisions on corporate governance that regulate relations between the management board and the General Meeting of shareholders and matters in respect of financial reporting, auditors, disclosure, compliance and enforcement standards. The DCGC is based on a “comply or explain” principle. Accordingly, companies are required to disclose in their Dutch annual reports (which are made available to shareholders) whether they comply with the provisions of the DCGC. If they do not comply with those provisions (for example, because of a conflicting Nasdaq requirement), the Company is required to give the reasons for such noncompliance. The DCGC applies to Dutch companies listed on a government-recognized stock exchange, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere, including Nasdaq.
We acknowledge the importance of good corporate governance. However, we do not comply with all the provisions of the DCGC, to a large extent because such provisions conflict with or are inconsistent with the corporate governance rules of Nasdaq and U.S. securities laws, or because we believe such provisions do not reflect customary practices of global companies listed on Nasdaq. Any such noncompliance may affect your rights as a shareholder, and you may not have the same level of protection as a shareholder in a Dutch company that fully complies with the DCGC.
Shareholders may not be able to exercise preemptive rights and, as a result, may experience substantial dilution upon future issuances of shares.
In the event of an issuance of our Class A Shares and our Class B Shares, subject to certain exceptions, each shareholder will have a preemptive right that is pro rata to the total amount of Class A Shares or Class B Shares (as applicable) held by such shareholder. These preemptive rights have been excluded by a resolution proposed by the management and adopted by the General Meeting. Our Board is authorized for a five-year period to issue shares or grant rights to subscribe for shares up to our authorized share capital and to limit or exclude preemptive rights in connection therewith, which could cause existing shareholders to experience substantial dilution of their holdings.
Our dual class structure has the effect of giving a greater percentage of voting rights than economic rights to Daniel Wiegand, our founder and Chief Executive Officer.
Class B Shares have three times as many votes per share, for a total of 36 votes per share on any matter submitted for shareholder approval, as opposed to the Class A Shares, which have 12 votes per share. As of June 8, 2022, Daniel Wiegand, our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, holds all of the issued and outstanding Class B Shares and controls 21.5% of the total voting power in the Company. Accordingly, Mr. Wiegand, like all shareholders with greater than 10% voting power in the Company, will be able to call a special meeting of shareholders to propose matters for shareholder approval such as the removal or election of directors or amendments to our organization documents. Mr. Wiegand may have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. For information about our dual class structure, see the section titled “Description of Securities.”
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Investors may have difficulty enforcing civil liabilities against us or the members of our management and our Board.
We are incorporated in the Netherlands, and we will conduct substantially all of our operations in Germany or Europe through our subsidiaries. A majority of our management and our directors are not U.S. residents and do not have significant assets in the U.S., and the majority of our assets are located outside the U.S. As a result, it may not be possible, or may be very difficult, to serve process on our representatives or us in the U.S., or to enforce judgments obtained in U.S. courts against our representatives or us based on civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the U.S.. There is no treaty between the U.S. and the Netherlands for the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments (other than arbitration awards) in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any federal or state court in the U.S. based on civil liability, whether or not predicated solely upon the U.S. federal securities laws, would not be enforceable in the Netherlands unless the underlying claim is re-litigated before a Dutch court of competent jurisdiction. U.S. investors will be unable to enforce any judgments obtained in U.S. courts in civil and commercial matters, including judgments under the U.S. federal securities laws, against us, members of our management and our directors. In addition, there is doubt as to whether a Dutch court would impose civil liability on us or the members of our management or our directors in an original action predicated solely upon the U.S. federal securities laws brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in the Netherlands against us or our management or directors.
Dutch, German and European insolvency laws are substantially different from U.S. insolvency laws and may offer our shareholders less protection than they would have under U.S. insolvency laws.
As a Dutch public limited liability company and as a company with its ‘center of main interest’ in Germany, we are subject to Dutch and German insolvency laws in the event any insolvency proceedings are initiated against us including, among other things, Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 20, 2015 on insolvency proceedings. Should courts in another European country determine that the insolvency laws of that country apply to us in accordance with and subject to such EU regulations, the courts in that country could have jurisdiction over the insolvency proceedings initiated against us. Insolvency laws in Germany, the Netherlands or the relevant other European country, if any, may offer our shareholders less protection than they would have under U.S. insolvency laws and make it more difficult for our shareholders to recover the amount they could expect to recover in a liquidation under U.S. insolvency laws.
Shareholders may be subject to limitations on transfer of their shares.
Our shares are transferable on the transfer agent’s books. However, the transfer agent may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the transfer agent may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of shares generally when our books or the transfer agent’s books are closed, or at any time if we or the transfer agent deems it advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.
We may be or may become a PFIC, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. Holders.
If we or any of our subsidiaries is a passive foreign investment company (a “PFIC”) for any taxable year, or portion thereof, that is included in the holding period of a beneficial owner of our Class A shares that is a U.S. Holder, such U.S. Holder (as defined in the section entitled “Taxation — Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”), may be subject to certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences and may be subject to additional reporting requirements. It is uncertain whether we or any of our subsidiaries will be treated as a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes for the current or any subsequent tax year. If we determine that we are PFIC for any taxable year, upon written request, we will endeavor to provide to a U.S. Holder such information with respect to the Company as the IRS may require, including a PFIC Annual Information Statement, in order to enable the U.S. Holder to make and maintain a QEF election (as defined in the section entitled “Taxation — Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders”), but there is no assurance that we will timely provide such required information. Further, there is no assurance that we will have timely knowledge of our status as a PFIC in the future or of the required information to be provided.
See the section entitled “Taxation — Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for U.S. Holders” for a more detailed discussion with respect to our PFIC status. Prospective U.S. Holders of Class A Shares are urged to consult their tax advisors regarding the possible application of the PFIC rules to them.
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We do not anticipate paying dividends.
Under Dutch law, we may only pay dividends to the extent our shareholders’ equity (eigen vermogen) exceeds the sum of the paid-up and called-up share capital plus the reserves required to be maintained by Dutch law or by our articles of association and (if it concerns a distribution of profits) after adoption of the annual accounts by our General Meeting from which it appears that such distribution is allowed. Our Board shall make a proposal to the General Meeting as to which amount of our profit, if any, shall be allocated to the Company’s profit reserves and which amount of the profit will be available for distribution. Our Board is permitted, subject to certain requirements, to declare interim dividends without the approval of the General Meeting. Subject to such restrictions, any future determination or recommendation to pay (interim) dividends will depend on a number of factors, including our results of operations, earnings, cash flow, financial condition, future prospects, contractual restrictions, capital investment requirements, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors considered relevant by the Board.
Our Board may decide that all or part of our remaining profits shall be added to our reserves. After such reservation, any remaining profit will be at the disposal of the General Meeting at the proposal of our Board, subject to the applicable restrictions of Dutch law.
Dividends and other distributions shall be made payable not later than the date determined by the corporate body that declares the (interim) dividend. Claims to dividends and other distributions not made within five years from the date that such dividends or distributions became payable will lapse, and any such amounts will be considered to have been forfeited to us (verjaring).
Provisions of our articles of association or Dutch corporate law might deter acquisition bids for us that our shareholders might consider to be favorable and prevent or frustrate any attempt to replace or remove the Board at the time of such acquisition bid.
Certain provisions of our articles of association may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of the Board or effect a change in the composition of the Board. These include:
● | the General Meeting will adopt a resolution to authorize the Board to issue Class A Shares and to limit or exclude preemptive rights on those Class A Shares, which could enable the Board to dilute the holdings of an acquirer by issuing Class A Shares to other parties; |
● | a provision that our directors can only be removed (other than pursuant to a proposal by the Board) by our General Meeting by a majority of at least two thirds of the votes cast, provided such votes represent more than half of the issued share capital; if and to the extent permitted by law, our Executive Directors may also be suspended by the Board; and |
● | a requirement that certain matters, including an amendment of our articles of association, a legal merger, legal demerger or a resolution to dissolve the Company, may only be brought to the shareholders for a vote upon a proposal by the Board. |
Such provisions could discourage a takeover attempt and impair the ability of shareholders to benefit from a change in control and realize any potential change of control premium. This may adversely affect the market price of our Class A Shares. For additional information, see the section titled “Description of Securities.”
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements provide our current expectations or forecasts of future events. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will” and “would,” or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Examples of forward-looking statements in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our operations, cash flows, financial position and dividend policy.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to:
● | Business or supply chain disruptions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic; |
● | Any disruption from the Business Combination to our current business plans and operations or potential difficulties in employee retention as a result of the Business Combination; |
● | We may not realize the anticipated benefits of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination; |
● | If the Business Combination’s benefits do not meet the expectations of investors, shareholders or financial analysts, the market price of our Class A Shares may decline; |
● | The market price of our Class A Shares may be volatile due to a variety of factors, such as changes in the competitive environment in which we operate, the regulatory framework of the industry in which we operate, developments in our business and operations, and any future changes in our capital structure; |
● | Our ability to maintain the listing of our Class A Shares on Nasdaq; |
● | Our ability to implement business plans, operating models, forecasts, and other expectations and identify and realize additional business opportunities; |
● | General economic downturns or general systematic changes to the industry in which we operate, including a negative safety incident involving one of our competitors that results in decreased demand for our jets or services; |
● | We and our current and future business partners may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize our business, or experience significant delays in doing so; |
● | We may never achieve or sustain profitability; |
● | We will need to raise additional capital to execute our business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; |
● | We may experience difficulties in managing our growth, moving between development phases or expanding our operations; |
● | Third-party suppliers, component manufacturers or service provider partners not being able to fully and timely meet their obligations or deliver the high-level customer service that our customers will expect; |
● | The Lilium Jet and any other products Lilium may introduce from time to time not performing as expected or as designed, delays in producing the Lilium Jets or delays in seeking full certification of all aspects of the anticipated lineup of Lilium Jets or any other Lilium products, causing overall delays in the anticipated time frame for our commercialization and launch; |
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● | If the technology necessary to successfully operate our business, as contemplated in the business models, is delayed, unavailable, not available at commercially anticipated prices, not sufficiently tested, not certified for passenger use or otherwise unavailable to us based on our current expectations and expected needs; |
● | Any identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting that, if not corrected, could adversely affect the reliability of our financial reporting; |
● | Product liability lawsuits, civil or damages claims or regulatory proceedings relating to our jets, technology, intellectual property or services; |
● | Our inability to secure or protect our intellectual property; and |
● | Negative publicity about us, our employees, directors, management, shareholders, affiliated parties or our founders. |
Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the factors described under the section titled “Risk Factors” in this prospectus. Accordingly, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this prospectus. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events after the date of this prospectus or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we will file from time to time with the SEC after the date of this prospectus.
In addition, statements that “Lilium believes” or “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this prospectus. And while we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and you are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.
Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements were reasonable at the time made, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Moreover, neither Lilium nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. You should carefully consider the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section in connection with the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus and any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that may be issued by Lilium or persons acting on our behalf.
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TUMIM STONE CAPITAL COMMITTED EQUITY FINANCING
On June 3, 2022, we entered into the Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement with Tumim, pursuant to which Tumim has committed to purchase up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares, at our direction from time to time after the date of this prospectus, subject to the satisfaction of the conditions in the Purchase Agreement.
Under the terms and subject to the conditions of the Purchase Agreement, we have the right, but not the obligation, to sell to Tumim, and Tumim is obligated to purchase up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares. Such sales of Class A Shares, if any, will be subject to certain limitations, and may occur from time to time at our sole discretion, over the approximately 24-month period commencing on the Commencement Date, provided, that the registration statement that includes this prospectus covering the resale by Tumim of Class A Shares that have been and may be issued under the Purchase Agreement, is declared effective by the SEC and the other conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement are satisfied.
Tumim has no right to require us to sell any Class A Shares to Tumim, but Tumim is obligated to make purchases at our direction subject to certain conditions. There is no upper limit on the price per Class A Share that Tumim could be obligated to pay for the Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement. Actual sales of Class A Shares to Tumim will depend on a variety of factors to be determined by us from time to time, including, among others, market conditions, the trading price of our Class A Shares and determinations by us as to the appropriate sources of funding for us and our operations.
We do not know what the purchase price for our Class A Shares will be and therefore cannot be certain as to the number of Class A Shares we might issue to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement after the Commencement Date. As of June 8, 2022, there were 266,765,951 Class A Shares outstanding, of which 147,238,801 Class A Shares were held by non-affiliates. Although the Purchase Agreement provides that we may sell up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares to Tumim, only 21,691,268 Class A Shares are being registered under the Securities Act for resale by the selling securityholder under this prospectus, which represent (i) 262,697 Commitment Shares we issued on June 8, 2022 as consideration for Tumim’s irrevocable commitment to purchase our Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement and (ii) up to 21,428,571 Class A Shares that may be issued to Tumim from and after the Commencement Date, if and when we elect to sell Class A Shares that have been or may be issued to Tumim in the future under the Purchase Agreement, if and when we sell Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement. Depending on the market prices of our Class A Shares at the time we elect to issue and sell Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, we may need to register for resale under the Securities Act additional Class A Shares in order to receive aggregate gross proceeds equal to the $75.0 million total commitment available to us under the Purchase Agreement. If all of the 21,691,268 Class A Shares offered by Tumim under this prospectus were issued and outstanding as of the date hereof, such Class A Shares would represent approximately 7.5% of the total number of Class A Shares outstanding and approximately 12.8% of the total number of outstanding Class A Shares held by non-affiliates, in each case as of the date hereof. If we elect to issue and sell more than the 21,428,571 Class A Shares offered under this prospectus to Tumim, which we have the right, but not the obligation, to do, we must first register for resale under the Securities Act any such additional Class A Shares, which could cause additional substantial dilution to our shareholders. The number of Class A Shares ultimately offered for resale by Tumim is dependent upon the number of Class A Shares we may elect to sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement from and after the Commencement Date.
The Purchase Agreement also prohibits us from directing Tumim to purchase any Class A Shares if those Class A Shares, when aggregated with all other Class A Shares then beneficially owned by Tumim and its affiliates, would result in Tumim and its affiliates having beneficial ownership, at any single point in time, of more than the Beneficial Ownership Cap.
The net proceeds under the Purchase Agreement to us will depend on the frequency and prices at which we sell Class A Shares to Tumim. We expect that any proceeds received by us from such sales to Tumim will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes. See “Use of Proceeds.”
As consideration for Tumim’s commitment to purchase our Class A Shares upon the terms of and subject to satisfaction of the conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement, upon execution of the Purchase Agreement, we issued 262,697 Commitment Shares to Tumim, whereby the aggregate nominal value of the Commitment Shares was paid by Tumim and will be deducted from the first payment for the Class A Shares to be issued to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement.
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Purchase of Class A Shares Under the Purchase Agreement
Upon the Commencement, we have the right, but not the obligation, from time to time at our sole discretion over the approximately 24-month period from and after Commencement Date, to direct Tumim to purchase amounts of our Class A Shares (the “Purchase Share Amount”) under the Purchase Agreement that we specify in purchase notices (the “VWAP Purchase Notice”) that we deliver to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement on any trading day. The maximum number of Class A Shares that may be purchased pursuant to a Purchase is equal to a number of Class A Shares equal to the lesser of (the “Purchase Maximum Amount”) (i) the product obtained by multiplying (A) the average daily trading volume in the Class A Shares on Nasdaq on the trading day immediately preceding the applicable day Tumim receives a valid VWAP Purchase Notice for such Purchase and (B) 0.15 and (ii) the quotient obtained by dividing (A) $10,000,000 by (B) the VWAP of the Class A Shares on Nasdaq on the trading day immediately preceding the applicable day Tumim receives a valid VWAP Purchase Notice for such Purchase.
The Company may deliver a VWAP Purchase Notice to Tumim on any trading day selected by us as the VWAP Purchase Exercise Date for a VWAP Purchase subject to the satisfaction of the conditions contained in the Purchase Agreement; provided that, Tumim shall not be obligated to purchase any Class A Shares set forth in a valid VWAP Purchase Notice in excess of the Purchase Maximum Amount. We may deliver a VWAP Purchase Notice on a Purchase Exercise Date, provided that (i) we may not deliver more than one VWAP Purchase Notice to Tumim on any single trading day, (ii) we may not deliver a VWAP Purchase Notice to Tumim on any trading day during the period commencing on the Purchase Exercise Date on which a prior VWAP Purchase Notice has previously been delivered by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement and ending on the applicable trading day immediately following the last trading day of the applicable Purchase Valuation Period (each such date, a “Purchase Settlement Date”) or such later trading day on which Tumim shall have received all of the Purchase Shares subject to such prior VWAP Purchase Notice in electronic form as “DWAC Shares” (as defined in the Purchase Agreement), subject to certain exceptions, and (iii) all Purchase Shares subject to all prior VWAP Purchase Notices for VWAP Purchases that have been properly delivered by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement (as applicable) have theretofore been received by Tumim or its broker-dealer as DWAC Shares prior to our delivery of such VWAP Purchase Notice to Tumim on such Purchase Exercise Date.
Class A Shares will be issued from the Company to Tumim at a 3% discount to the VWAP of the Class A Shares during the trading day on which a VWAP Purchase Notice with respect to a particular purchase is delivered from the Company to Tumim.
The payment for, against delivery of, Class A Shares in respect of each Purchase under the Purchase Agreement will be delivered to Tumim as DWAC Shares not later than 3:30 p.m., New York City time, on the trading day immediately following the VWAP Purchase Notice on the applicable Purchase Settlement Date, as set forth in the Purchase Agreement.
Conditions to Commencement and Delivery of Purchase Notices
Our ability to deliver VWAP Purchase Notices to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement are subject to the satisfaction, both at the time of Commencement and at the time of delivery by the Company of any VWAP Purchase Notice to Tumim, of certain conditions, all of which are entirely outside of Tumim’s control, including, among other things, the following:
● | the accuracy in all material respects of our representations and warranties included in the Purchase Agreement; |
● | us having performed, satisfied and complied in all material respects with all covenants, agreements and conditions required by the Purchase Agreement to be performed, satisfied or complied with by us; |
● | the effectiveness of the registration statement that includes this prospectus (and any one or more additional registration statements filed with the SEC that include Class A Shares that may be issued and sold by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement); |
● | the SEC shall not have issued any stop order suspending the effectiveness, prohibiting or suspending the use of the registration statement that includes this prospectus (or any one or more additional registration statements filed with the SEC that include Class A Shares that may be issued and sold by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement); |
● | there shall not have occurred any event and there shall not exist any condition or state of facts that makes any statement of a material fact made in the registration statement that includes this prospectus (or in any one or more additional registration |
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statements filed with the SEC that include Class A Shares that may be issued and sold by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement) untrue or that requires the making of any additions to or changes to the statements contained therein in order to state a material fact required by the Securities Act to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements then made therein (in the case of this prospectus or the prospectus included in any one or more additional registration statements filed with the SEC under the Registration Rights Agreement, in light of the circumstances under which they were made) not misleading; |
● | this prospectus, in final form, shall have been filed with the SEC under the Securities Act, and all reports, schedules, registrations, forms, statements, information and other documents required to have been filed by the Company with the SEC pursuant to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act shall have been filed with the SEC; |
● | trading in our Class A Shares shall not have been suspended by the SEC or Nasdaq, we shall not have received any final and non-appealable notice that the listing or quotation of the Class A Shares on Nasdaq shall be terminated on a date certain (unless, prior to such date, the Class A Shares are listed or quoted on a nationally recognized successor to Nasdaq) (each, an “Eligible Market”)), and there shall be no suspension of, or restriction on, accepting additional deposits of the Class A Shares, electronic trading or book-entry services by The Depository Trust Company with respect to the Class A Shares; |
● | we shall have complied with all applicable federal, state and local governmental laws, rules, regulations and ordinances in connection with the execution, delivery and performance of the Purchase Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement; |
● | the absence of any statute, regulation, order, decree, writ, ruling or injunction by any court or governmental authority of competent jurisdiction which prohibits the consummation of or that would materially modify or delay any of the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement or the Registration Rights Agreement; |
● | the absence of any action, suit or proceeding before any arbitrator or any court or governmental authority seeking to restrain, prevent or change the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement or the Registration Rights Agreement or seeking material damages in connection with such transactions; |
● | all of the Class A Shares that may be issued pursuant to the Purchase Agreement shall have been approved for listing or quotation on Nasdaq (or on any Eligible Market); |
● | no condition, occurrence, state of facts or event constituting a material adverse effect shall have occurred and be continuing; |
● | any voluntary or involuntary participation or threatened participation in insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings by or against us; and |
● | the receipt by Tumim of the opinions, bring-down opinions and negative assurances from outside counsel to us in the forms mutually agreed to by us and Tumim prior to the date of the Purchase Agreement. |
No Short-Selling or Hedging by Tumim
Tumim has covenanted not to cause or engage in any manner whatsoever any direct or indirect short selling or to execute any stock pledge, forward sales contract, option, put, call, swap or similar hedging arrangement (including on a total return basis) of our Class A Shares.
Prohibition on Variable Rate Transactions
From and after the date of the Purchase Agreement until the termination of the Purchase Agreement, we have agreed not to enter into any “equity line of credit” or other substantially similar continuous offering in which we may offer, issue or sell Class A Shares or Class A Share equivalents (or any combination of units thereof) at a future determined price.
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Termination of the Purchase Agreement
Unless earlier terminated as provided in the Purchase Agreement, the Purchase Agreement will terminate automatically on the earliest to occur of:
● | the first day of the month next following the 24-month anniversary of the Commencement Date; |
● | the date on which Tumim shall have purchased Class A Shares under the Purchase Agreement for an aggregate gross purchase price equal to its $75.0 million Total Commitment under the Purchase Agreement; |
● | the date on which the Class A Shares shall have failed to be listed or quoted on Nasdaq or any other Eligible Market; and |
● | the date on which we commence a voluntary bankruptcy case or any third party commences a bankruptcy proceeding against us, a custodian is appointed for us in a bankruptcy proceeding for all or substantially all of our property or we make a general assignment for the benefit of our creditors. |
We have the right to terminate the Purchase Agreement at any time after Commencement, at no cost or penalty, upon one trading day’s prior written notice to Tumim. We and Tumim may also terminate the Purchase Agreement at any time by mutual written consent.
Tumim also has the right to terminate the Purchase Agreement upon one trading day’s prior written notice to us but only upon the occurrence of certain events, including:
● | the occurrence of a Material Adverse Effect (as defined in the Purchase Agreement); |
● | the occurrence of a Fundamental Transaction (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) involving us; |
● | our failure to file with the SEC or have declared effective by the SEC the registration statement that includes this prospectus or any additional registration statement we file with the SEC pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement, within the time periods set forth in the Registration Rights Agreement or our breach or default of the Registration Rights Agreement; |
● | the effectiveness of the registration statement that includes this prospectus or any additional registration statement we file with the SEC pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement lapses for any reason (including the issuance of a stop order by the SEC) or this prospectus or the prospectus included in any additional registration statement we file with the SEC pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement otherwise becomes unavailable to Tumim for the resale of all of the Class A Shares included therein, and such lapse or unavailability continues for a period of 30 consecutive trading days or for more than an aggregate of 120 trading days in any 365-day period, other than due to acts of Tumim; |
● | trading in the Class A Shares on Nasdaq (or if the Class A Shares are then listed on an Eligible Market, trading in the Class A Shares on such Eligible Market) has been suspended for a period of three consecutive trading days; or |
● | our material breach or default under the Purchase Agreement. |
No termination of the Purchase Agreement by us or by Tumim will become effective prior to the first trading day immediately following the applicable settlement date related to any pending Purchase that has not been fully settled in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Purchase Agreement, and will not affect any of our respective rights and obligations under the Purchase Agreement with respect to any pending Purchase, and both we and Tumim have agreed to complete our respective obligations with respect to any such pending Purchase under the Purchase Agreement. Furthermore, no termination of the Purchase Agreement will affect the Registration Rights Agreement, which will survive any termination of the Purchase Agreement.
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Effect of Performance of the Purchase Agreement on our Shareholders
All Class A Shares that have been or may be issued or sold by us to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement that are being registered under the Securities Act for resale by Tumim in this offering are expected to be freely tradable. The Class A Shares being registered for resale in this offering (excluding the 262,697 Commitment Shares) may be issued and sold by us to Tumim from time to time at our discretion over a period of up to approximately 24 months commencing on the date of execution of the Purchase Agreement. The resale by Tumim of a significant amount of Class A Shares registered for resale in this offering at any given time, or the perception that these sales may occur, could cause the market price of our Class A Shares to decline and to be highly volatile. Sales of our Class A Shares, if any, to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement will depend upon market conditions and other factors to be determined by us. We may ultimately decide to sell to Tumim all, some or none of our Class A Shares that may be available for us to sell to Tumim pursuant to the Purchase Agreement.
Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, we have the right, but not the obligation, to direct Tumim to purchase up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares, subject to certain limitations. We have registered only a portion of the Class A Shares that may be issuable under the Purchase Agreement and, therefore, we may seek to issue and sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement more Class A Shares than are offered under this prospectus in order to receive the aggregate gross proceeds equal to the $75.0 million Total Commitment available to us under the Purchase Agreement. If we choose to do so, we must first register for resale under the Securities Act any such additional Class A Shares, which could cause additional substantial dilution to our shareholders. The number of Class A Shares ultimately offered for resale under this prospectus is dependent upon the number of Class A Shares we direct Tumim to purchase under the Purchase Agreement.
The following table sets forth the amount of gross proceeds we would receive from Tumim from our sale of Class A Shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement at varying purchase prices:
Assumed Average Purchase Price Per Class A Share |
| Number of |
| Percentage of |
| Gross |
| |
$2.00 | 21,691,268 | 7.5 | % | $ | 43,382,536 | |||
$2.56 | 21,691,268 | 7.5 | % | $ | 55,529,646.08 | |||
$3.00 | 21,691,268 | 7.5 | % | $ | 65,073,804 | |||
$4.00 | 18,750,000 | 6.6 | % | $ | 75,000,000 | |||
$6.00 | 12,500,000 | 4.5 | % | $ | 75,000,000 |
(1) | Although the Purchase Agreement provides that we may sell up to $75.0 million of our Class A Shares to Tumim, we are only registering 21,691,268 shares under this prospectus, which represents (i) 262,697 Commitment Shares we already issued to Tumim as consideration for making the irrevocable commitment under the Purchase Agreement to purchase our Class A Shares and (ii) up to an additional 21,428,571 Class A Shares representing shares which may be issued to Tumim in the future under the Purchase Agreement, if and when we sell shares to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, and which may or may not cover all the shares we ultimately sell to Tumim under the Purchase Agreement, depending on the purchase price per share. As a result, we have included in this column only those shares that we are registering in this offering, without regard to the Beneficial Ownership Cap. The assumed average purchase prices per share are solely for illustrative purposes and are not intended to be estimates or predictions of the future performance of our Class A Shares. |
(2) | The denominator is based on 266,765,951 Class A Shares outstanding as of June 8, 2022, which includes the 262,697 Commitment Shares. The numerator is based on the number of shares issuable under the Purchase Agreement at the corresponding assumed purchase price set forth in the first column. |
(3) | The closing sale price of our Class A Shares on June 13, 2022. |
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USE OF PROCEEDS
This prospectus relates to Class A Shares that may be offered and sold from time to time by the selling securityholder. All of the Class A Shares offered by the selling securityholder pursuant to this prospectus will be sold by the selling securityholder for its own account. We will not receive any of the proceeds from these sales. We may receive up to $75.0 million aggregate gross proceeds under the Purchase Agreement from any sales we make to the selling securityholder pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. The net proceeds from sales, if any, under the Purchase Agreement, will depend on the frequency and prices at which we sell Class A Shares to the selling securityholder after the date of this prospectus. See the section titled “Plan of Distribution” elsewhere in this prospectus for more information.
We expect to use any proceeds that we receive under the Purchase Agreement for working capital and general corporate purposes, including to fund potential future investments that we believe are complementary to our business and consistent with our growth strategy. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses, and the respective amounts we may allocate to those uses, for any net proceeds we receive. Accordingly, we will retain broad discretion over the use of these proceeds. Pending our use of the net proceeds as described above, we may elect to invest the net proceeds received pursuant to the Purchase Agreement in interest-bearing, investment-grade instruments.
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DETERMINATION OF OFFERING PRICE
We cannot currently determine the price or prices at which our Class A Shares may be sold by the selling securityholder under this prospectus, which prices could reflect market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to the prevailing market prices, at negotiated prices or at fixed prices, which may be changed.
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MARKET INFORMATION FOR CLASS A SHARES AND DIVIDEND POLICY
Market Information
Our Class A Shares and Public Warrants are currently listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbols “LILM” and “LILMW,” respectively. Prior to the consummation of the Business Combination, our Class A Shares and our Public Warrants were listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbols “QELL” and “QELLW,” respectively. As of June 8, 2022, there were 51 holders of record of our Class A Shares and 13 holders of record of our SPAC Warrants. Such numbers do not include beneficial owners holding our securities through nominee names. None of our Class B Shares or Class C Shares is registered and we do not currently intend to list the Class B Shares or the Class C Shares on any exchange or stock market.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our Class A Shares and we do not anticipate paying any dividends on our Class A Shares for the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain any earnings for future operations.
Under Dutch law, we may only pay dividends to the extent our shareholders’ equity (eigen vermogen) exceeds the sum of the paid-up and called-up share capital plus the reserves required to be maintained by Dutch law or by our articles of association and (if it concerns a distribution of profits) after adoption of the annual accounts by our General Meeting from which it appears that such distribution is allowed. Our
Board shall make a proposal to the General Meeting which amount of the profit shall be allocated to the Company’s profit reserves and which amount of the profit shall be available for distribution. Our Board is permitted, subject to certain requirements, to declare interim dividends without the approval of the General Meeting.
Subject to such restrictions, any future determination or recommendation to pay (interim) dividends will depend on a number of factors, including our results of operations, earnings, cash flow, financial condition, future prospects, contractual restrictions, capital investment requirements, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors considered relevant by the Board.
Our Board may decide that all or part of our remaining profits shall be added to our reserves. After such reservation, any remaining profit will be at the disposal of the General Meeting at the proposal of our Board, subject to the applicable restrictions of Dutch law.
Dividends and other distributions shall be made payable not later than the date determined by the corporate body that declares the (interim) dividend. Claims to dividends and other distributions not made within five years from the date that such dividends or distributions became payable will lapse and any such amounts will be considered to have been forfeited to us (verjaring).
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BUSINESS OF LILIUM AND CERTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT LILIUM
Overview
We are a next-generation transportation company. We are focused on developing an eVTOL aircraft for use in a new type of high-speed air transport system for people and goods — one that would offer increased connectivity for communities around the world as well as generate time savings to travelers, would be accessible from Vertiports close to homes and workplaces, be affordable for a large part of the population and be more environmentally friendly than current regional air transportation.
The products we are developing are fully electric jet aircraft that can take off and land vertically with low noise. Our objective is for the Lilium Jets to be the basis for sustainable, high-speed RAM networks. We believe such networks will require less infrastructure than traditional airports or railway lines and a fully electric jet aircraft would produce minimal operating emissions. We expect our Lilium Jets will generate zero operating emissions during flight and, factoring in emissions from vehicle and battery production and infrastructure construction, we estimate total emissions per passenger mile of approximately 0.3 ounces CO2, which is approximately 97% less when compared to traditional commercial aviation. A single trip might save hours for a traveler; in aggregate, these networks could save our societies millions of travel hours — and significant carbon emissions — each year.
Currently, our development efforts are focused on our ongoing certification process for the Lilium Jet with EASA and the FAA and building out our manufacturing capacity. We plan to rely on three business models. First, we plan to use the Lilium Jet within regional passenger shuttle networks, initially in the U.S. and Europe, that we intend to create and operate with third parties (our “Lilium Network”). Second, we plan to provide a turnkey enterprise solution by selling fleets of Lilium Jets and related aftermarket services directly to enterprise and other customers (the “Turnkey Enterprise”). Third, we intend to target general business aviation customers as a supplemental business line that we intend to deploy in tailored offerings through private or fractional ownership sales (our “Private and Fractional Sales”).
The new and developing eVTOL aircraft market has been made possible by a convergence of innovation across battery technology, lightweight materials, sensors and computing power and propulsion technology. Morgan Stanley has projected that the eVTOL aircraft market could represent $1.0 trillion (in the base case) to $4.5 trillion (in the bull case) in revenues by 2040.
The Lilium Jet architecture is based on our proprietary Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust (“DEVT”) technology, which has been developed and rigorously tested over the last several years. While the majority of our eVTOL competitors leverage open rotor engines, which are based on unducted, counter-rotating propeller blades that can have a higher noise profile, DEVT consists of quiet electric turbofans mounted within a cylindrical duct. DEVT offers a number of fundamental advantages over open propeller eVTOL architectures, including higher payload potential, safety, the highest market acceptance and penetration for ducted fans in commercial aviation, and potential scalability to larger aircraft in the future.
We believe these technology advantages will enable our regional shuttle service model to carry more passengers (or cargo) per jet on longer (regional) trips than open propeller eVTOL aircraft. We are currently developing a lineup of Lilium Jets, including prospective four and six passenger models, that will be based on the same modular architecture but have distinct specifications and design targets based on their expected commercial use. The specifications for the Lilium Jets currently under development call for the aircraft to be able to cruise at up to 175 mph for a physical aircraft range of up to 155 miles (our maximum target for entry into service) and up to 110 miles of projected operating range at full payload excluding reserves. We believe the combination of longer average trip lengths and our anticipated passenger capacity for our lineup of Lilium Jets (and thus a higher load factor, depending on model) will provide greater time savings to customers, more competitive pricing and superior unit economics as compared to open propeller eVTOL architecture. We also believe our architectural platform would allow us to create a larger version of the Lilium Jet in the future based on similar architecture and technology. However, our design activities remain in process, and there can be no assurances that such a larger aircraft will be developed or the timing thereof.
We intend for the Lilium Jet to have low take-off noise: approximately 60 – 65db(A) at 100 meters (330 feet), depending on loading conditions, flight maneuvers and environmental factors. Our expectations are based on in-house analysis predictions, tests with prototype engines and real-world measurements of our Phoenix technology demonstrator (which is not optimized for noise, with no acoustic liners) though the actual noise profile of our serial production aircraft may differ depending on our final design and certification activities. By contrast, helicopters generate noise levels from 10 – 100 times higher. We are designing the Lilium Jet to be virtually inaudible (estimated 20 db(A) at 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) distance) from the ground during cruise flight.
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We believe that our high-speed regional air networks will significantly change the economic calculus of passengers and businesses shipping goods when making transportation and shipping decisions. Based on current design specifications and our business model, we estimate that our Lilium Jets will be able to move people and goods five times faster than road transport, and that our eVTOL network will be approximately 100 times less costly and approximately 10 times faster to deploy than equivalent high-speed rail infrastructure, and considerably more adaptable to shifting passenger demand. These estimates are based on judgments and assumptions of our management in light of information available at this time; actual results may differ.
Our business operating model will focus on deploying our lineup of Lilium Jets in as many profitable use-cases and geographies as possible, subject to obtaining appropriate certifications and regulatory approvals. We expect our initial business model to focus on selling aircraft to general and business aviation customers through fractional ownership models and direct sales to private individuals, which we expect to implement through an anticipated collaboration with partners. Following our commercial launch, we expect our business model to be predicated on deploying our Lilium Jet, at scale, to regional passenger networks and enterprise customers, while providing high service quality and agility to adjust the supply of Lilium Jets in a network to match potentially varying demand and capital efficiency. To implement our Lilium Network business model, we plan to engage with companies on Vertiport infrastructure, airline operations, pilot training and maintenance.
For example, we intend to work with leading infrastructure players such as Ferrovial and Tavistock with the aim of building and operating a network of Vertiports in strategic locations across Florida. We are also engaged in negotiations with key infrastructure providers in respect of at least ten Vertiports to build our European network, which we intend to launch in Germany or another suitable location and then expand across Central and Western Europe. We intend to enter into definitive agreements with these parties, but there can be no assurances that we will be able to do so on favorable terms or at all. In addition, we have engaged Lufthansa Aviation Training to build a commercial-grade program to train future pilots for the Lilium Jet. Outsourcing these activities to specialist companies allow us to scale our asset-light operations quickly without limiting our profit potential or fully relinquishing our competitive advantages or brand loyalty. We also plan to deliver our aircraft fleets together with the digital software capabilities that underpin the network service, including: network management; flight planning; jet operations and maintenance; and customer bookings. We continue to assess the implementation and infrastructure needs for our Private and Fractional Sales model, which we expect to initially conduct in collaboration with strategic partners.
We believe that our aerospace team is one of the most capable in the eVTOL sector. Collectively, they have held instrumental roles in the delivery of the Airbus A350 XWB, Airbus A380, Airbus A320, the Gulfstream G-650 jet engine, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Harrier jet, among others. They are supported by approximately 450 aerospace engineers and a business team with a strong track record in building successful companies in Silicon Valley and Europe. In addition to our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Wiegand, our Board includes our Chairman, Dr. Thomas Enders, as well as Henri Courpron, Barry Engle, David Neeleman, Margaret M. Smyth, Gabrielle Toledano, David Wallerstein and Niklas Zennström.
We applied for Type Certification with EASA in 2017 and for concurrent Type Certification validation with the FAA in 2018. Receiving a Type Certificate in accordance with stated regulatory standards will certify compliance to the applicable airworthiness standards for the Lilium Jet, which is a necessary prerequisite to undertaking commercial operations. In 2020, the Lilium Jet received CRI-A01 certification basis from EASA (similar to the G-1 from the FAA), setting forth a set of performance requirements we have agreed with the regulators for the Lilium Jet. Based on the current status of our design activities and our discussions with regulators and suppliers, as well as current supply chain dynamics, we are progressing towards a targeted initial Type Certification in 2025, which we believe would position us as one of the first companies to enter the eVTOL market. Importantly, achieving both EASA and FAA certification will allow our Lilium Jets to operate in Europe, the U.S. and many other countries where the national civil aviation authorities currently recognize these certifications (examples may, but are not guaranteed to include India and certain countries within the Middle East, Southeast Asia and major parts of Central and South America). We believe that the national civil aviation authorities of these countries would accept a Type Certification from EASA and the FAA; however, we cannot assure that this will be the case, and the actual acceptance is dependent on the authorities’ review when the Type Certification is presented. In addition, certain other countries have bilateral agreements in place with EASA, including technical implementation procedures to validate an EASA Type Certification. These countries include China, Japan, Canada and Brazil, for which some additional validation work would be required. More details about the Lilium Jet’s certification process and regulation are below under “— Regulation.”
We have an approximately 100,000 square foot technology prototyping and production facility at the Oberpfaffenhofen airfield near our Munich headquarters in Germany, which is currently being expanded by approximately 45,000 square feet. We expect this facility may eventually house our serial aircraft production, including the anticipated manufacturing of the proprietary propulsion and
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energy systems and the final assembly of the serial aircraft. Other sub-systems and components will be outsourced to Tier 1 aerospace suppliers, such as Toray Industries, Aciturri Aeronáutica, DENSO, and Honeywell.
Use cases of the eVTOL industry
According to Roland Berger’s “Urban Air Mobility | USD 90 billion of potential: How to capture a share of the passenger drone market” Report from November 2020, there are three main use cases for passenger transport:
● | Urban Air Mobility (“UAM”) or intra-city air taxis, which will operate within a radius of 10 – 30 miles through an on-demand service (similar to road taxis), focusing on large urban areas; |
● | Suburban Air Mobility (“SAM”) or airport shuttles, which are scheduled flights on defined routes between airports and surrounding areas, covering 10 – 30 miles; and |
● | Regional air mobility (“RAM”) or intercity flights, covering distances from 10 – 155 miles. According to a report from L.E.K. Consulting, the cost of operations on a per-kilometer basis will be lower for RAM services due to a much higher assumed average distance per flight. L.E.K. Consulting projects RAM to deliver higher time and cost savings for customers compared to UAM /intra-city air taxis or traditional modes of transport and, as a result, also to be a much larger segment of the overall eVTOL aircraft market. |
The differentiation between these use cases applies mainly to passenger transport but also holds for the cargo transport application.
Each of these uses will require close integration with existing transportation infrastructure to facilitate a smooth customer journey. RAM will be able to operate in a multimodal, ride-share fleet model, taking advantage of existing infrastructure and vacant land adjacent to existing transportation infrastructure, such as the top floor of parking garages, empty safety corridors at airports, train stations or suburban transportation hubs. We expect eVTOL services to start as a complementary transportation alternative to existing services, with operations primarily between airports, urban transportation hubs and urban transportation centers. Over time, eVTOL service infrastructure could evolve with the densification of Vertiports across key city locations as well as rural communities.
Our History
Lilium was co-founded in 2015 by four founders with complementary talents, all of whom are graduates from the Technical University of Munich: Daniel Wiegand, Sebastian Born, Dr. Patrick Nathen and Matthias Meiner.
The four co-founders started working together in 2014 and founded Lilium in 2015. From 2015 to today, Lilium has produced multiple generations of technology demonstrators through which we have tested and refined the core technology subsystems for the Lilium Jet:
● | ‘Falcon’: a sub-scale technology demonstrator, which had its unmanned maiden flight in 2015; the first technology demonstrator with 36 engines, which also provided the first validation of the DEVT technology. |
● | ‘Dragon’: a sub-scale technology demonstrator, fully 3D printed, which had its unmanned maiden flight in 2016 and served primarily to test the flight control software. |
● | ‘Eagle’: the first full scale DEVT-based eVTOL technology demonstrator with space for two seats, which had its unmanned maiden flight in December 2016. |
● | ‘Phoenix’: development started in late 2017, the Phoenix is a full-scale technology demonstrator representing an original 5-seater aircraft and is representative of the flight physics and technology of the Lilium Jet. On May 4, 2019, following extensive on-ground testing, the Phoenix jet completed its first untethered and unmanned test flight at the Special Airport Oberpfaffenhofen airport in Munich, Germany. We recently moved our next-generation technology demonstrator, Phoenix 2, |
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to ATLAS Flight Test Center in Villacarrillo, Spain, for the next phase of high-speed testing and intend to deploy an additional demonstrator aircraft, Phoenix 3, for first flight in Spain as early as the fourth quarter of 2022. |
In 2018, our application for Type Certification of the serial aircraft was accepted by EASA and the FAA, and we subsequently started the development program for our serial aircraft based on the technologies developed and refined over the previous generation of aircraft demonstrators.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe that our business benefits from a number of competitive strengths, including the following:
Proprietary DEVT technology unlocks higher unit economic potential
The majority of our competitors use ‘open propeller’ eVTOL architectures. We employ our own proprietary DEVT technology, a differentiated propulsion system refined over five years, which provides four mission critical advantages:
● | Low Noise: the presence of ducts around the fans stops noise from radiating freely into the environment. Furthermore, we will employ acoustic liners within the fan duct, which will lower the noise further. We estimate that our noise footprint at take-off will be meaningfully lower than open propeller eVTOL configurations of similar weight, which we expect will permit Lilium Jets to land more often and in more locations (that have communal noise restrictions) than competitor aircraft, increasing our potential network density and market potential. |
● | Highest Market Penetration for Ducted Fans in Commercial Aviation: ducted fans are standard in the aviation industry — 95% of commercial airliners and business jets employ ducted fan propulsion systems. Fan ducts improve jet and passenger safety by mitigating damage to the aircraft that can be caused by blade failure and loss. Ducted fans also generate less vibration than open propellers, improving the passenger experience. |
● | Payload Capacity: electric turbo fans have a 10 to 15 times smaller footprint than open propeller eVTOL propulsion systems, which means that aircraft using ducted fans need 10 to 15 times less rotor surface area than an open propeller aircraft of the same weight to provide the necessary thrust. Consequently, use of ducted fans allows us to make heavier airplanes with higher passenger/cargo capacity while still meeting the maximum size limit of a standard helipad. Greater passenger/cargo capacity is expected to directly translate into higher revenue potential per jet and higher margins, because approximately 50% of the operating costs (pilot, landing fees) are fixed (per aircraft) and do not scale with increased passenger/cargo capacity. |
● | Footprint and Scalability: open propeller eVTOL configurations cannot scale to heavier aircraft with more payload without significantly increasing rotor tip-to-tip span (footprint) or noise levels. In contrast, the smaller footprint of DEVT enables greater flexibility to scale to, for example, an equivalent larger eVTOL aircraft while still being able to take off and land on most standard helipads. This increased payload would translate directly into higher revenue and margins per jet or, if necessary to address competitive pressures, to drive down prices for consumers in the long term. |
Highly accomplished team combining deep aerospace experience, global business and entrepreneurial experience, backed by a strong Board of Directors and investor base
● | Lilium was founded by four individuals with complementary skill sets. The founders are still heavily involved in our operations, with one of our founders, Daniel Wiegand, serving as CEO. |
● | Our aerospace team consists of approximately 450 engineers who have built up thousands of years of aerospace and automotive experience combined. Our leadership team played instrumental leadership roles in some of the most successful and complex aviation projects. |
● | Our business and commercial leadership team has experience in building and growing successful technology companies in Silicon Valley and Europe. We promote diversity in all aspects of our culture, and our global team represents more than 55 nationalities. |
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● | We have attracted a strong investor base of global funds and individuals that play active roles in the development of our business and preparation for commercialization and market entry. Tencent, one of our largest investors, has begun collaborating with us to assess and develop a strategy for a potential future market entry into China, though there can be no assurances that any such strategy will be implemented or will be successful. |
● | We have assembled a strong and experienced Board, including the former CEO of Airbus, Dr. Thomas Enders, who brings substantial experience in delivering some of the world’s largest aircraft programs, as well as successfully building and shaping a world-class aerospace organization. Henri Courpron, Barry Engle, David Neeleman, Margaret M. Smyth, Gabrielle Toledano, David Wallerstein, our |
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Wiegand, and Niklas Zennström bring unique experience and knowledge to our Board.
Progress in concurrent Type Certification with clear path to commercialization
● | We have had regular engagement with both the FAA and EASA since 2017, and in 2018, both authorities accepted our application for Type Certification. |
● | In December 2020, we received from EASA the CRI-A01, the certification basis, for the Lilium Jet (similar to the G-1 from the FAA). The CRI-A01 is an important milestone in the certification process and confirms EASA’s agreement on the certification basis of our serial aircraft design, based on EASA’s SC-VTOL and additional means of compliance, which specify the means by which the requirements contained in the basic regulations can be met. The CRI-A01 also provides a roadmap of the tests and metrics that we need to implement and comply with to achieve full Type Certification of the Lilium Jet (as further discussed below under “— Regulation — Aircraft Certification”). |
● | We are now working with EASA towards the next important milestone, agreement of the certification program, which includes Means of Compliance for demonstrating that our aircraft conforms with stated certification requirements. We are therefore a step closer to this milestone, which represents the equivalent of the FAA G-2 issue paper. Earlier this year, our teams submitted a full set of Means of Compliance proposals to EASA. Our next steps are to agree on the certification program with EASA, which we aim to complete by the end of 2022. |
● | We are pursuing concurrent validation of the aircraft with the FAA under the provisions of the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement between the U.S. and EU. Our relationship with the FAA is managed via EASA. We are currently preparing an application for type-certificate validation with the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC), which will also be submitted through EASA as soon as the end of the second quarter of 2022. |
● | Based on the current status of our design activities and our discussions with regulators and suppliers, as well as current supply chain dynamics, we are targeting receipt of our initial Type Certification in 2025, which we believe would put us among the first companies certified to launch an eVTOL service. We believe that receiving Type Certification from both EASA and the FAA will enable us to access many other markets, beyond Europe and the U.S., where the national civil aviation authorities currently recognize these certifications (examples may, but are not guaranteed, to include, India and certain countries within the Middle East, Southeast Asia and major parts of Central and South America). We believe that the national civil aviation authorities of these countries would accept a Type Certification from EASA and the FAA; however, we cannot assure that this will be the case, and the actual acceptance is dependent on the authorities’ review when the Type Certification is presented. |
● | We believe the FAA and EASA certification processes for eVTOL aircraft create high barriers to entry for potential market entrants. Therefore, we see it as a competitive advantage that we have engaged frequently with EASA and the FAA since 2017 and that we were one of the earlier players whose application for Type Certification was accepted by both authorities. This provides us dual advantages of being one of the first movers in the sector and likewise being substantially familiar with the details of requirements established by the regulators. |
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● | In addition, in April 2022, we successfully completed our second Design Organization Approval (DOA) audit with EASA, confirming that we are following the design processes agreed with the regulator. |
Aircraft designed for manufacturability at scale
● | We have designed the Lilium Jet’s architecture based on the principles of simplicity, manufacturability and scalability, in order to facilitate higher production volumes than traditional aviation. |
● | The Lilium Jet is intended to be controlled entirely by the flap angle and engine speed alone, and to not have any aerodynamic control surfaces, fuel or hydraulic systems. |
● | The carbon fiber aerostructure is projected to be scalable to high-volume manufacturing. |
● | We believe the combination of these design choices results in an aircraft with very few, highly repeated components across all systems, which we believe will enable us to employ automotive-style design for manufacturing and fully automated precision manufacturing of high-volume components such as the electric jet engines, the actuators and the battery packs. |
Strong commercial relationships and commercial traction
● | To ensure the highest quality in all aspects of the aircraft, we are working with leading Tier 1 aerospace suppliers, such as Toray Industries, Aciturri Aeronáutica, Aernnova, DENSO and Honeywell, and we are in discussions with other leading companies on avionics, electric motors, electric wiring system, and other jet components. Many of our suppliers are agreeing to risk-sharing arrangements, which means that instead of being charged up-front for development and tooling costs, we intend to amortize these costs over time as our production scales. These arrangements can be terminated by either party, and there can be no assurance that one of our suppliers will not terminate its arrangements with us. The terms of our existing collaboration agreements typically include one or more of the following: joint ownership of the new intellectual property; assignment of the new intellectual property to either us or the collaborator; either exclusive or non-exclusive licenses to the new intellectual property to us or the collaborator; and other restrictions on our or our collaborator’s use of developments, such as non-competes and time or milestone limited exclusivity provisions. If we are unable to negotiate exclusivity regarding the technology developed under these collaborations, our competitors may be able to access the technology that is owned, solely or jointly, by our suppliers and other collaborators. |
● | In order to build, operate and scale our Lilium Network infrastructure to the highest operational and service quality, we intend to work with leading infrastructure players such as Ferrovial, the owner and operator (among others) of London’s Heathrow airport, and Tavistock, a strong local Florida developer. In Europe, we are likewise engaged in negotiations with key infrastructure companies to build ten Vertiports for our German-based network across Europe. These relationships are aimed at putting us in a position to have viable Vertiport operations in at least two strategic markets in time for the commercial launch of our Lilium Network, though no assurances can be given that these relationships will not be terminated or that suitable Vertiport operations can be implemented. |
● | In addition, we have entered into an agreement with Lufthansa Aviation Training who will assist in the sourcing, training and management of pilots for our Lilium Jets — both for our own planned Lilium Network operations as well as future enterprise customers. |
The eVTOL Industry, Total Addressable Market and its Drivers
The eVTOL aircraft market is a developing sector within the transportation industry. This market sector is dependent on the successful development and implementation of eVTOL aircraft and networks, none of which are currently in commercial operation. Morgan Stanley has projected that the eVTOL market for moving people and moving goods could be between $1 trillion (in the base case) to $4.5 trillion (in the bull case) in revenues by 2040, as set forth in the “Morgan Stanley Research, Flying Cars: Investment Implications of Autonomous Urban Air Mobility” report released in December 2018, as updated in 2021 (the “Morgan Stanley Report”).
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The Morgan Stanley Report projects that the ‘moving people’ market size could be $0.5 trillion in revenues in the base case by 2040 and is linked to the automotive, shared mobility and airline transportation markets. The Morgan Stanley Report projects that the eVTOL aircraft market will become a more cost-effective and time-efficient method of traveling short to medium distances, eroding market shares from automotive and airline companies as customers appreciate the time savings and convenience of eVTOL services.
‘Moving goods’ refers mainly to the freight transportation market. The Morgan Stanley Report projects this market size could represent another $0.5 trillion in revenues in the base case by 2040. The Morgan Stanley Report projects that eVTOL technology is expected to revolutionize logistics due to advantages in speed, efficiency and accessibility over traditional trucks, airplane and train freight transportation. In addition, the Morgan Stanley Report cites the potential for eVTOL technology to provide a viable and affordable transportation solution in geographic locations without a current viable solution (such as rural or island communities) and to expand the possibilities for 24-hour delivery or overnight parcel delivery in regions where existing transport modes are simply too slow. As these eVTOL technologies mature and enable heavier aircraft, eVTOL transportation has the potential to scale from regional parcel delivery to larger freight applications.
The large eVTOL market opportunity is precipitated by a transportation system that is insufficient to handle increasing demand without time delays, high infrastructure and maintenance costs and adverse environmental impact. Since 1990, global passenger flows have increased by more than 125% across all major modes of travel, and global trade volume has even increased by approximately 200%. To counter the rapidly increasing demand for mobility and logistics, governments worldwide are investing a total of approximately $1 trillion per annum into transport infrastructure, which is three times more compared to twenty years ago. Yet, despite these investments, regional transport systems have fundamentally not improved:
● | Cars are slow and limited by capacity, speed limits and congestion. For example, the average commuter spends more than 50 hours annually in road congestion. |
● | High-speed rail has achieved very low density of real high-speed connections given prohibitively high infrastructure cost and long lead times to deploy the infrastructure. |
● | Conventional airplanes fail to achieve significant time savings in regional travel since lengthy arrival and departure take too much time, with smaller airports closing in favor of more economically sustainable larger hubs. |
The transport sector represents approximately a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, which have continued to rise over the last twenty years.
We believe eVTOL technology combines the accessibility of the car and the speed of an aircraft, with the added benefit of minimal operating emissions. We believe these characteristics will result in customers’ shifting preferences towards eVTOL over traditional transportation modes, as customers will prioritize time savings, convenience and environmental impact. Vertiport networks are anticipated to be low cost, low noise, to have minimal operating emissions and to be located at strategic locations throughout urban and suburban areas that will be capable of operating at all hours, with low upfront infrastructure costs, allowing these networks to develop substantially quicker and with lower cost than traditional high-speed transport infrastructure.
Governments are increasing their support for the development of eVTOL networks through regulatory incentives and investment schemes. For example:
● | In 2020, the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to establish an interagency working group focused on advanced air mobility. |
● | In 2020, the German Federal Ministry of Transport launched a financial assistance program for the development of drones and air mobility services. |
● | In 2020, the French government announced up to €1.5 billion investment by 2023 in research and development of new technologies in the aviation sector with a goal of having the first emissions-free aircraft by 2035. |
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The pace of private investment by companies, as well as government spending, will impact the pace of technology adoption and the level of market penetration. The Vertical Flight Society, a U.S. non-profit group that promotes urban air transportation, estimates roughly $5 billion was invested into the development of eVTOL aircraft and systems between 2015 and 2020.
Enabling technologies and supporting services are likely to be key accelerants of the eVTOL aircraft market, as such factors have proven to be in the electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle market. We believe that many of the same technology developments, such as development in batteries, materials, sensors and software, are likely to directly benefit the eVTOL market. For example, improvements in battery energy density for electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles may drive increased range and payload for eVTOL aircraft, unlocking longer routes and thus increasing the addressable market.
Our Strategy
We plan to create and operate, with commercial operators, high-speed regional air networks that utilize our aircraft and deploy these for intercity passenger mobility (Lilium Network, B2C) as well as to sell aircraft and aftermarket services to commercial aviation customers (Turnkey Enterprise service, B2B). We expect to supplement these two business lines through sales to general and business aviation and private customers, an opportunity that we believe presents a strong value proposition (Private and Fractional Sales, PFS). In each case, we believe our differentiated technologies will allow us to deliver an efficient, cost-effective service for transporting people and goods. We have outsourced several aspects of the infrastructure and operation so that we can pursue an asset-light strategy that will allow us to scale quickly and efficiently.
Capitalize on our first mover advantage to enter the new RAM market
● | We are focusing our initial services on RAM: regional connections between cities and locales. We believe these routes can generate meaningful time savings for our customers, including both enterprise and general and business aviation customers, at a lower cost per seat-mile, while allowing us to achieve higher load factors per jet than intra-city services would be able to generate. |
● | We plan to launch RAM services (either through our own network or via sales of aircraft to partners) with a few, high-demand routes and grow over time, as the services gain support and acceptance among our customers. Longer-term, we envision expanding our network to provide high-speed connectivity to all major urban and suburban cities within a region that we expect will be substantially cheaper and faster to deploy than traditional high-speed rail infrastructure, although there can be no assurances as to the timing or nature of expansion decisions by us or operators of Lilium Jets, which will be made depending on circumstances in the future following commercialization. |
Pursue multiple revenue streams through diversified business models and associated profit pools
We plan to operate three business models to diversify our revenue opportunities and mitigate the risks in our commercialization.
● | Our Lilium Network (B2C) will allow consumers to purchase tickets on a per seat basis. This business model has higher potential revenues and profits per jet, with revenue dependent on the actual number of passengers travelling on each jet. |
● | Our Turnkey Enterprise service (B2B) will sell or lease jets to governments, companies, commercial airlines and logistic companies followed by an annual service fee charged to customers on a per jet basis for maintenance and operating services. The B2B revenue potential has lower revenue upside, but establishes a strong revenue floor, immediate payback of the jet in the case of sales and predictable revenue flow overall. |
● | Our Private and Fractional Sales (PFS) offering to general and business aviation customers, as well as to private individuals, will consist of sales of our Lilium Jet, likely in a premium cabin configuration, to private owners through either direct sales or a fractional ownership program in collaboration with strategic partners, such as NetJets. Our PFS sales are intended to supplement our anticipated B2C and B2B services. We believe the Lilium Jet, with its unique electric-jet propulsion technology, emission-free operation, low noise profile, spacious cabin and outstanding customer experience, is especially well suited to the premium demands of this segment. As a result, we believe this is a highly attractive market that can help drive early adoption of eVTOL aircraft. |
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Introduce a scalable, capital-light business model for the commercialization of our services and manufacturing of our Lilium Jets
● | We plan to be a vertically integrated company that focuses on the strategic, differentiated activities in the value chain. We are managing the design and engineering of core aerospace technologies and production of our jets. We are developing a digital platform to facilitate the Vertiport and aircraft operations, flight planning and network management, as well as a direct interface to passengers via a customer app. |
● | We plan to outsource the capital-intensive and complementary activities of the value chain, which includes airline and infrastructure operations (Vertiport construction and operations, airline operations, aircraft maintenance, pilot training and crew services) to various established aerospace and infrastructure companies. We believe this outsourcing model will enable us to remain capital-light, to focus on our core strengths and to scale quickly. This capital-light approach is also reflected through our manufacturing strategy. We plan to produce unique technology subsystems in-house (such as assembling the battery and propulsion systems and final aircraft assembly) and leverage Tier 1 aerospace suppliers for all other systems and components. We are currently expanding our prototyping facility; however, in the medium-term, we intend to leverage manufacturing third parties to help effectively expand our global manufacturing and to keep our own capital expenditures to a minimum. |
Roll out our service globally
● | We believe that RAM represents a large global market opportunity. We are capitalizing on this global opportunity by setting the requirements to launch and roll out our service in several major markets around the world. Many countries’ national civil aviation authorities have bilateral agreements or working arrangements with EASA or the FAA and, as a result, receiving our concurrent Type Certification with EASA and the FAA would be an important first step towards being allowed to operate in a large part of the rest of the world. |
● | We have developed a Vertiport roll-out plan for the Lilium Network (B2C) in Florida and Europe, and have entered into arrangements with leading infrastructure players to progress these plans. |
● | China represents another important market opportunity, and we have begun collaborating with our investor Tencent to assess and develop a strategy for a potential future market entry into China. |
● | For our Turnkey Enterprise service (B2B) and Private and Fractional Sales (PFS), we expect significant global market potential, and we are in active discussions with potential customers around the world, including in the U.S., Western Europe and the Middle East, though these discussions remain at a preliminary stage, and we can give no assurances as to the timing or geography of any networks that will develop. |
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