(Yicai) Sept. 28 -- Shares of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric plunged after its chief executive told investors that the carmaker founded by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting has delivered just three vehicles despite nine years of work and USD3 billion of investment.

Faraday Future [NASDAQ: FFIE] closed 44 percent lower at USD1.37 a share in New York yesterday, bringing the stock’s decline to 95 percent since Aug. 3 and leaving the company with a market capitalization of just USD25.5 million.

“With the successful delivery of three FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliances this quarter (the first was shipped on Aug. 14), the firm achieved some of its most challenging milestones in its history,” Matthias Aydt said in a letter to shareholders yesterday, adding that Faraday Future has invested around USD3 billion over the past nine years.

“We filed a registration for an ‘at-the-market’ financing program,” Aydt noted. “This program provides additional financial flexibility and optionality for the company.”

ATM financing is a method used by publicly traded companies to raise capital by gradually selling newly issued shares of their common stock or other securities into the open market. Such a program would enable California-based Faraday Future to issue up to USD90 million of Class-A common shares thorugh underwriters, it said.

“Working with our group of investment banks, through the ATM, the company will now be able to raise money from the market at current prevailing market prices,” Aydt said.

“It allows the company to put a halt to its equity line of credit program and move away from additional convertible notes financings on which it had to rely over the past year,” he added. “With an ATM program in place, the company hopes to return to more traditional corporate financing structures to financially support future growth.”

Los Angeles-based Faraday Future was founded by Jia in 2014 with the aim of creating a new and innovative EV company and it initially generated much attention and hype in the auto industry. Jia had previously set up Leshi Internet Information & Technology Beijing, a struggling internet firm that was once known as ‘China's Netflix.’

A Chinese court recently ruled that Leshi Internet must pay investors CNY2 billion (USD274 million) in compensation for losses they incurred as a result of its false financial statements, news outlet Quanzhongshe reported on Sept. 21, citing a lawyer who referred to a first-instance ruling made by the Beijing Financial Court.

Jia, Leshi’s then-actual controller, chairman, and general manager, played a role in the organization, decision-making process, and instructions given to the firm and related employees to participate in cooking the books, resulting in financial fabrications stretching over 10 years, according to the court. Jia was liable for joint indemnity, under the ruling.

Editor: Martin Kadiev