Britishvolt is in discussions to sell a majority stake in the electric car battery business in a rescue deal for the company.
The Blyth business has been working on plans to create a £3.8bn gigafactory in Cambois which it hopes could produce hundreds of thousands of electric vehicle batteries, while directly employing up to 3,000 workers and 5,000 more in its supply chain. However, the firm has been mired in financial issues for several months, leading to directors launching emergency funding talks at the end of last year, having been told it could not yet draw down on Government funding of around £100m, which was first pledged last January.
In October it also avoided administration, after sealing an eleventh hour funding injection from existing investors. Now however, the company has confirmed it is close to a sale deal.
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In a statement, the company said: “Battery technology pioneer Britishvolt is in discussions with a consortium of investors concerning the potential majority sale of the company. The discussions aim to secure legally binding terms that would provide Britishvolt with the long-term sustainability and funding necessary to enable it to pursue its current plans to build a strong and viable battery cell R&D and manufacturing business in the UK. The two parties will provide further details at the appropriate time and have nothing further to add at this stage.”
The company has not revealed the identity of the potential investors but a sale could secure its safety until it receives orders, potentially unlocking Government funding.
Once up and running, it hopes to produce more than 300,000 lithium-ion batteries a year at the Blyth site and it has previously struck deals with a number of companies to supply vital components needed to make the batteries, as well as preliminary arrangements with luxury car makers including Aston Martin and Lotus to design batteries for their electric cars.
Last August, contractor ISG’s work on site was paused, the same month that the firm’s founder and CEO Orral Nadjari, left the business. Britishvolt had also planned to build a second factory in Quebec, Canada – potentially twice the size of its planned North East operation at 60GWh – but the firm ditched its plans for North America to focus on its Blyth business.
Top executives did not take salary payments in December, although all other employees received their monthly pay as per usual. While the company was in talks with a range of potential investors, Britishvolt’s chairman Peter Rolton told The Journal he was confident negotiations would bear fruit.
At the time, he said: “We’ve had a lot of discussions started which were previously, frankly, stalled – where they said 'we’re out, we love you dearly but not at the moment’ – they’re now coming back to the table. I’m confident we’ll get somewhere.”
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