Arrival names EY as administrator for two UK units

(Reuters) -British electric vehicle startup Arrival has named EY as administrator for two of its units, the consulting firm said on Monday, following struggles to get its business off the ground and secure enough funding to keep it running.

Simon Edel, Alan Hudson and Sam Woodward of EY-Parthenon's Turnaround and Restructuring Strategy team were appointed joint administrators of Arrival UK and Arrival Automotive UK, EY said.

Arrival was in talks with EY about acting as administrator if it failed to secure rescue funding, Sky News reported last month.

The consulting firm is exploring options to sell assets of the startup, including EV platform, software, intellectual property and R&D assets, EY and Arrival said.

The company, which has no revenue, raised going-concern doubts in November 2022 and has shed most of its workforce since then.

The EV firm, which was earlier backed by Hyundai, Kia and United Parcel Service, said in late 2022 that it would shift focus to the U.S. market in an attempt to capitalize on the Inflation Reduction Act incentives and address a larger market.

Arrival had attempted to raise funds through a double SPAC merger with blank-check firm Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp V that would have infused hundreds of millions of dollars had the deal not collapsed.

The company's stock was delisted from the Nasdaq on Jan. 30 after receiving a letter from the stock exchange notifying the company of the move.

Arrival is the latest casualty in the high-profile EV industry, where rising interest rates, stubborn inflation and high costs involved in production ramp have hit the cash reserves of most startups.

Companies such as Lordstown Motors, Proterra and Sweden's Volta Trucks are among those that declared bankruptcy last year.

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Akash Sriram and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru and Nick Carey in London; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shweta Agarwal)