Renault has cancelled the planned listing of its Ampere EV division citing “current equity market conditions”.
Renault had planned to spin off the division in the first quarter of 2024 with the aim of generating cash to fund the ambitious roll-out of new electric cars as well as a new digital platform to boost software performance.
CEO Luca de Meo last year called it a “fundamental reshuffle of our business model.”
“Renault Group considers that the current equity market conditions are not met to optimally pursue the IPO process in the best interests of Renault Group, its shareholders and Ampere,” the company said in a statement.
Ampere will now be mostly funded internally, which Renault says is now easier thanks to a strong financial performance from the brand, citing 2023 financial year results which it will formally announce on 15 February. Alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi have invested €800 million in Ampere.
De Meo has long decried Renault’s lacklustre stock market performance despite an impressive turnaround in its overall business leading to recent record profits. Spinning off Ampere was a chance to show investors the value of a future-facing company shorn of its legacy baggage.
Investors and analysts however have been lukewarm about the Ampere IPO. Splitting off a division so integral to Renault’s future would be “unavoidably convoluted” according to the bank Bernstein in a note last year. It wondered why Renault didn’t do what it’s now been forced to and fund the spin-off company itself. Other analysts said the split would hurt the value of Renault’s shares.
Renault said Ampere will continue on its course laid out by in the November capital markets day, in which the company unveiled the new Twingo small EV. “The whole Ampere team is fully committed to execute its strategy and build its track-record,” Renault said in a statement.
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