Cobalt firm taps in to electric car boom with £174m London stock market float

A worker with car batteries at a factory in China. Cobalt is among the metals that are essential to the manufacture of electric car batteries. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A cobalt trading company has said it will raise £174m in rare a stock market float in London, in a bet on demand for car batteries that defies investor nerves around the growth in electric cars.

Cobalt Holdings said it will raise $230m (£174m) in order to buy up a supply of the metal, a crucial element in electric car batteries, from the FTSE 100 mining company Glencore. The miner will invest $24m, taking a stake of about 10%, according to a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Monday.