With the largest “green” loan in Europe to date, the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt is borrowing five billion dollars from the capital market. The company of Peter Carlsson (53), which, among other things, is a car manufacturer Volkswagen is one of its investors and customers, wants to use the money to expand its production of lithium-ion batteries in northern Sweden. Northvolt said this in a statement on Tuesday.
The capacity of the Northvolt plant, which is the first purely European supplier to produce lithium-ion battery cells for larger German and European automobile manufacturers, will be expanded in several stages from the current 16 GWh to up to 60 GWh. Additionally, Northvolt will expand its “Revolt Ett” recycling facility. In addition to scrap material from ongoing production, old batteries are to be processed here, and a sharp increase is expected in the coming years. As part of a multi-stage chemical process, nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium are to be returned to the battery manufacturing process.
IPO is getting closer, get debts
The company could also use the cash injection to further prepare for an IPO, speculated by insiders, which could value the company at more than 20 billion euros. Executives see the move as likely once current market conditions improve. Investors, however, are convinced that an IPO will be difficult as long as the group continues to make heavy losses, as the “Financial Times
” reported.
In the statement, Northvolt explained that financing was provided by 23 banks as well as the European Investment Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank. It includes the refinancing of a $1.6 billion debt package starting in July 2020. The startup’s losses rose eight-fold to nearly $1.1 billion in the first three quarters of 2023 compared to the previous year ( around 1 billion euros). Executives therefore warned that the construction of future planned gigafactories would result in additional financing packages worth billions.
Expansion also in Germany
Also in Germany The company is currently extending its feelers further. The federal government has a good half a billion euros in funding for the construction of a battery factory in theSchleswig-Holstein heath
Approved. In total, Northvolt will receive around 700 million euros, with almost 136 million euros coming from the state of Schleswig-Holstein. In March, the EU Commission significantly expanded the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF) for technology funding, thereby creating new opportunities for state funding.