LORDSTOWN — Lordstown Motors Corp. and an investment firm run by the company’s founder and ex-chief executive have an agreement for the company to acquire “specified assets” of the electric-vehicle startup.

Accord-ing to a regulatory filing late Friday afternoon, Delaware-based LAS Capital, whose majority equity holder is Steve Burns, and Lordstown Motors signed a $10 million purchase agreement for assets related to the “design, production and sale of electric light duty vehicles” in the commercial fleet market.

The filing also states LAS Capital has deposited 10% of the purchase price in escrow that will either: Be credited at closing, released to Lordstown Motors if the agreement is terminated because of a breach by LAS Capital or released to LAS Capital if the agreement is terminated for any other reason.

In addition, LAS Capital has agreed to pay Lordstown Motors a $4 million termination fee under certain circumstances if the investment firm breaches the agreement, the filing states.

The agreement must be approved in U.S. bankruptcy court. A sale hearing is scheduled Oct. 18.

Lordstown Motors filed for Chapter 11 protection June 27. During the course of the case, the company fought off an attempt by former business partner turned adversary Foxconn to either dismiss the bankruptcy case or convert it to Chapter 7 liquidation.

The win allowed Lordstown Motors to continue in Chapter 11 and market the assets for sale.

LAS Capital submitted a qualified bid, and signed the purchase agreement with Lordstown Motors on Friday, the filing states.

The agreement comes after Lordstown Motors in recent weeks extended the deadline for interested parties to bid three times. An auction also was scheduled for Friday morning.

Lordstown Motors President Edward Hightower previously testified the company’s assets include the battery pack module and hub motor lines for the company’s first vehicle, the battery-powered Endurance pickup truck. A buyer also would have access to employees who brought the truck into production, Hightower said then.

HISTORY

Burns founded the company in 2019 to mass produce electric work trucks and worked out an agreement with General Motors to purchase its former Lordstown small-car assembly plant to manufacture the vehicles for just $20 million.

He left the company in June 2021, without a stated reason by Lordstown Motors, but his departure was in sync with an admission by the company that statements regarding preorders for the company’s first vehicle, the Endurance, were inaccurate.

He was given a $750,000 severance package, paid over 18 months, when he left.

In November 2021, Burns started unloading shares in the company and took away a total of more than $66 million.

He was awarded 46.3 million shares of common stock in the company when it merged with New York-based DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., a special purpose acquisition, or “blank-check” company in August 2020 to become a publicly traded company.

Under the new leadership, the company sold the plant to global electronics and technology firm Foxconn for $230 million in May 2022 and shifted away from manufacturing toward engineering and developing electric vehicles.

The relationship with Foxconn, however, soured.

Lordstown Motors filed an adversary lawsuit against Foxconn the same day it filed bankruptcy, claiming fraud and bad faith by the Taiwanese technology and electronics giant led to the bankruptcy.

Foxconn called the depiction that Lordstown Motors is the victim of a fraud a “fictitious narrative” Lordstown Motors created “solely for the purpose of obtaining a tactical litigation advantage,” a court document states.

The agreement between Lordstown Motors and Foxconn also called for the two to partner to develop electric-vehicle programs, but that was later changed to a $170 million equity investment agreement.

The companies closed on $52.7 million of the $170 million in November, but that was all. In April, Lordstown Motors received a delisting notice from Nasdaq that stated the company’s stock had fallen below the minimum bid price requirement of $1 per share for 30 consecutive trading days.

That triggered a letter from Foxconn stating it believed Lordstown Motors, because of the notification from Nasdaq, had breached the investment agreement.

Foxconn then told Lordstown Motors it wouldn’t close on a second $47.3 million stock purchase included in the agreement because of the breach. Lordstown Motors then sued. The case is pending.

ABOUT LAS CAPITAL

The regulatory filing states that former Lordstown Motors chief financial officer, Julio Rodriguez, is understood by the company to be “one of the indirect managers” of LAS Capital.

Rodriguez resigned from the company the same day as Burns, on June 14, 2021. Like Burns, Rodriguez left without a reason, but under the same cloud that preorder statements for the Endurance were inaccurate.

Lordstown Motors then was hurt by a damning short-sellers report by New York-based Hindenburg Research that claimed the company misled investors regarding its production capability and preorders.

A committee formed by Lordstown Motors to invest the claims identified issues with the accuracy of some statements regarding preorders.

Rodriguez left the company with $200,000 that was to be paid over six months and continued vesting of certain outstanding stock options.

In connection with the bankruptcy sale process, LAS Capital, including Burns and Rodriguez, “have not had and do not currently have any affiliation” with Lordstown Motors “other than as a third party bidder” in the court-approved sale process, the regulatory filing states.

According to its website, LAS stands for land, air and sea, “the three spaces we work within to create superior electric vehicles, and the three of earth’s elements made better by our efforts.”

“The companies within our venture benefit from a shared expertise in mechanical & software engineering, battery and propulsion technology, and EV production experience. All four of our companies have working prototypes and are in various stages of pre-production,” the website states.

It describes Burns as a “serial entrepreneur,” as a “first-mover in the EV space for the past 15 years” and as someone who has taken two EV companies public.

Burns also founded Workhorse Group, a technology company that now focuses on last-mile delivery ground and air-based EVs.