Britishvolt shopping majority stake in bid to shore up funding

Electric car battery startup Britishvolt is in talks to sell a majority stake, it emerged on Monday, in a bid to ensure its future.

According to a number of press reports, including from the Telegraph and the Financial Times, the company said it was “in discussions with a consortium of investors concerning the potential of a majority sale of the company”.

The news came after the firm managed to stave off the administrators late last year after securing eleventh-hour funding from investors at the end of November.

Britishvolt is planning a £3.8bn ‘gigafactory’ to manufacture electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Northumberland, with £100m of government funding earmarked for the project.

None of that funding has been released, however, and was refused its bid to draw down £30m early last year before securing the last-minute funds from private investors, alongside pay cuts for staff and investors.

Britishvolt was flaunting the prospect of an initial public offering two years ago, but since then it had struggled with a multi-year delay to its planned facility, as well as the departure of its founder and chief executive officer Orral Nadjari last year.

Emirati former banker Nadjari handed the reins to ex-Ford of Britain chairman Graham Hoare in August.

On Monday, Britishvolt told press that discussions with investors were intended to ensure the company’s “long-term sustainability”, and to secure the funding needed for its current plans to “build a strong and viable battery cell research and development and manufacturing business in the UK”.

The firm did not, however, reveal the identity of the possible investors.

According to the Telegraph, investors and rival battery makers had also been eyeing up Britishvolt’s site in Blyth.

It said the Slovakia-based Inobat, headed up by the former boss of Aston Martin, Andy Palmer, was keen on the location in the event of Britishvolt’s collapse.

Abrdn is set to fund the development of the site for Britishvolt, although the financing depended on the company reaching certain targets, with the fund management giant not investing in Britishvolt itself.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.