An Australian firm has swooped for Johnson Matthey’s battery materials business in a £50m deal, acquiring several UK sites while also saving jobs.
EV Metals Group has snapped up the Battery Materials business assets in Billingham on Teesside, plus sites in Oxford, Germany and Poland, together with a package of patents, licences and a team of 100 technical personnel in the deal, to become “a new force” in the electric vehicles supplies market. The deal comes five months after Johnson Matthey placed 150 staff at the firm’s Billingham plant under consultation, after owners announced plans to close the battery materials business.
EV Metals Group will keep the North East site open and it also hopes to announce further recruitment and investment. The deal includes the battery technology centre, together with its pilot plant and research laboratories, as well as Johnson Matthew’s battery divisions in Oxford, Germany and one under construction in Poland. Johnson Matthey take a minority equity stake in EVM and a seat on the board.
