Electric battery start-up Britishvolt is in discussions to sell a majority stake in the company in a rescue deal.
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. Financial troubles, however, led to the firm seeking out new owners, with financial advisors Lazard apparently being instructed to find funding as soon as possible.
The investment call was issued after Britishvolt was told it could not draw down on Government funding of around £100m, which was first pledged at the start of last year, until it reached a number of milestones, including securing orders. Last October Britishvolt avoided falling into administration, after sealing an eleventh hour funding injection from existing investors.
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Now however, the company has confirmed it is close to a sale deal. 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. However, a majority sale would secure its safety until it receives orders, which would then potentially unlock Government funding.
Once operational, Britishvolt hopes to produce more than 300,000 lithium-ion batteries a year. It has previously announced deals with a number of companies to supply components needed to make the batteries. It has also announced 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, where three members of staff had been working from an office in Montreal, to focus on its Blyth business.
Top executives did not take salary payments in December, although all other employees received their monthly renumeration 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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