The story
Oatly was founded in 1994 by food scientist Rickard Öste and his brother Björn Öste. The parent company of Oatly AB is Ceba AB, which was founded by Rickard Öste, Ingegerd Sjöholm, Inger Ahlden and Lennart Lindahl together with the cereals company Skånska Lantmännen on 17 February 1994 Oatly Group changed its name from Havre Global AB on 1 March 2021.
Oatly is now part-owned by Blackstone Inc. (7%), Verlinvest, 45,9% via Nativus Company Limited a part of China Resources (a conglomerate owned by the Chinese state), Industrifonden, Östersjöstiftelsen, and the employees. The group also included celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z, as well as Starbucks former chairman and chief executive officer Howard Schultz.
In 2018 the company was publicly criticized for supporting a local pig farm to which it sold the residue of its manufacturing process. The company said it would "re-visit the issue." It opened its first US factory in Millville, New Jersey, in 2019.
In 2020, Oatly's sale of a US$200-million stake to investors including Blackstone Inc., which has financed companies driving extensive deforestation in the Amazon, as well as driving road development into the depths of the jungle for export of foodstuffs, angered consumers and led to a backlash against the company.
In 2021, Oatly applied to be listed in the United States on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "OTLY". When the company set terms for its initial public offering, its potential value was estimated at more than $10 billion. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse were the underwriters. OTLY stock was priced at $17 but had its first public trade at $22.12 on the first day.
On 14 July 2021 short seller Spruce Point Capital published a report questioning Oatly's management and sustainability. Spruce Point alleged that Oatly overstated revenue and margins, among other accounting issues, and accused the company of green washing for understating water usage, and for not having a waste-water treatment facility. After the announcement Oatly's stock briefly went below IPO, resulting in several class-action lawsuits. Glenn Vanzura of Mayer Brown stated that it is common in other industries that after a short-seller targets a company to drive down stock price, a class action lawsuit is filed, noting that such lawsuits are often dismissed.
Oatly took a small British firm, Glebe Farm Foods, to court, alleging it had infringed Oatly's trademark by selling cartons of an oat-based drink called "PureOaty". In August 2021, the judge dismissed Oatly's case at the High Court of Justice in London, concluding there was only a "very modest level of similarity" between the Glebe Farm branding and Oatly's.
From Wikipedia’s article on Oatly, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8