The Federal Ministry of Economics has the advice of the consulting company PWC On the economic situation of the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt published. The dpa, which was partially blackened by June 15, 2023, was available. First, the “Bild” newspaper reported about it.
On the basis of the report, the federal government and the state of Schleswig-Holstein decided to promote the now insolvent company due to a convertible bond of 600 million euros for a settlement in Heide.
The document shows that the examiners considered a repayment of the convertible bond including interest rates to be “plausible”. They also assessed the sales potential for the battery cells produced by Northvolt as high.
Risk for investors
However, the report also showed that the company was dependent on external investors to cover the expenses. However, the examiners attributed it to the early project phase in 2023 that “no capital providers are yet certain”. However, debtors would have an increased risk of default, since these are dependent on the production situations in the individual factories.
According to a report by the magazine “Politico”, which quotes from the report, PWC evaluates the risk of a complete loss of state funding.
The report was commissioned by the then Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (55, Greens). Union and AfD accuse Habeck of ignoring risks when building a Northvolt factory in northern Germany.
Insolvency in March
Northvolt had filed for bankruptcy in Sweden in March. So far, the consequences for the German subsidiary Northvolt Germany, which builds a battery cell factory in Schleswig-Holstein, have been unclear. Before the construction started, Northvolt had long negotiated with government agencies in order to maintain the highest possible grants. The state sponsoring bank KfW paid out a loan of 600 million euros, for which half of the federal government and the state of Schleswig-Holstein bonded.
On Wednesday, both Habeck and Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche (51) were invited to the budget committee, where it should be about Northvolt.
For a long time, Northvolt was a great hope in European efforts to catch up with technologically in the area of batteries for electric cars towards China. But the company increased debt mountains, fought with a weak demand and production delays.