Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting had a roughly 94 percent stake in a company that has been buying Clark County land and working with officials on behalf of Faraday Future, according to a March disclosure form filed with the Southern Nevada Water Authority. In early April, the emerging car company broke ground on a $1 billion assembly plant in North Las Vegas.
The privately held carmaker Faraday Future has been reluctant to release funding details except to say that Jia, the CEO of Chinese media giant LeEco, is a personal investor. In a letter to Nevada legislators in December, before the lawmakers considered and eventually passed tax incentives for Faraday, Jia wrote that he was personally backing the company but that there was also “a diverse funding strategy” to support the company’s ambitious goals.
Robin Prop Holdco appears to primarily be involved in Faraday’s North Las Vegas land.
According to the SNWA document, Jia, as of March, had a 94 percent stake in Robin Prop Holdco, a Delaware-based limited liability company that on documents used the same address as Faraday’s Los Angeles headquarters and did business in Nevada on behalf of Faraday. Jia is listed on the disclosure form as a “member/shareholder (indirect)."
Since the document is dated March 21, it is unclear if the form reflects Jia’s current share.
When asked for a comment on Jia and the disclosure form, a spokesperson for Faraday said it “is a privately held company and does not disclose the details of our funding.”
The disclosure form was included in a packet of materials released to the public before an SNWA meeting Wednesday. The water agency's board met Tuesday to approve agreements for an infrastructure project at Apex Industrial Park, where the company is building its assembly plant. Robin Prop Holdco was a party to that agreement. SNWA requires companies it does business with to fill out the form to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.
Faraday would not comment on Robin Prop Holdco’s relationship to the company. On the disclosure form, though, Robin Prop Holdco indicated it was doing business as Faraday. It has additionally purchased more than 750 acres of land. County records include “Faraday & Future” in the owner's address line. In agreements with SNWA, Robin Prop Holdco is introduced once as a party and then is subsequently referred to as “Faraday.”
Though the form indicates Jia had a roughly 94 percent share of Robin Prop Holdco in March, how much he owns of Faraday, which has about 750 employees, has not been disclosed. At the groundbreaking in April, Faraday spokesperson Stacy Morris declined to discuss Jia’s role in an interview with the Sun, except to say that “as an investor, he of course has a say."
In addition to the estimated $215 million in incentives granted to the company in January, the state said it would embark on several infrastructure projects necessary for the company to operate at the largely undeveloped Apex park. Faraday is required to secure the state’s investment in those projects, and the electric carmaker has promised to do so by securing a $75 million performance bond. The company can only get that money back once the factory is built and generating revenue. Faraday also promised to open an escrow account of about $13 million to provide funding for engineering plans and potentially construction at the site.
Despite concerns raised by the Nevada state treasurer about Faraday’s financing, most state leaders have said they remain confident in the project. State treasurer Dan Schwartz’s concerns stem from reports that Jia uses his LeEco shares as collateral for lines of credit. That worries Schwartz because LeEco, also a strategic partner of Faraday, suspended trading in December and has missed several deadlines to resume trading, including one this month.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Jia used 85 percent of his shares in LeEco as collateral for personal lines of credit that he has then used to fund new businesses. It is believed, the Journal reported, that he has raised billions in Chinese currency this way.
At CES in January, Faraday unveiled a concept of a high-end electric race car. Last month, LeEco unveiled its own concept car, an electric sedan that could rival the Tesla Model S.