Troubled battery start-up Britishvolt has been given a lifeline to keep the firm going "over the coming weeks" after an anonymous investor stepped forward to temporarily hold off administrators.
The Blyth-based firm hopes it can secure more long-term funding during this period, confirming it has "received promising approaches" from several international investors in the past few days.
Britishvolt filed for administration on 17 January 2023. Click here for the latest updates: Britishvolt collapses with loss of nearly 300 jobs
Its near-300 employees have also taken a voluntary November pay cut, to help this money last longer, the firm confirmed to Autocar this morning.
The firm said in a statement: "We have now secured the necessary near-term investment that we believe enables us to bridge over the coming weeks to a more secure funding position for the future.
"We want to thank our employees, suppliers and investors, for their continuing belief in Britishvolt."
As reported earlier this week, the company was preparing to enter administration on Monday as the government rejected a request for £30 million of funding for Britishvolt to avoid collapse.
It has been in talks with a number of high-profile firms, including Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Motors. The investors were offering options from minority stakes in the firm to full takeover, the FT reported.
Another suitor was Slovakian battery company Inobat, according to Bloomberg, which was in talks to buy Britishvolt’s 93-acre site near Blyth, Northumberland - originally earmarked for its new cell plant.
Inobat, whose non-executive chairman is former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, wanted to either take over Britishvolt or merge with it. The land in Blyth is arguably Britishvolt’s most valuable asset, thanks to its access to a seaport, renewable energy and the local automotive industry.
One of the main issues hitting Britishvolt is that it is spending £3 million a month on pay after hiring almost 300 people, the FT reports, despite revenue not expected until at least 2025.
In a previous statement given to Autocar earlier this month, Britishvolt said: "It is important that Britishvolt is a success: not only for the 300 employees currently working for the company, but also for the many thousands of jobs that we intend to create at our gigaplant site in Northumberland and our R&D and scale-up facilities in the West Midlands, and for the future of the UK auto industry and the country’s target to become net carbon zero by 2050.
"The ‘Britishvolt Effect’ is of huge strategic importance to UK plc and its standing on the global battery map.”
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300 employees doing what? Because it doesn't look that they're producing any batteries. Not seen a single one from Britishvolt.
The only asset is the land, and there's plenty of other sites. Some in the EU that are more favourable and closer to the markets after Brexit put up barriers.
Trying to do something like this is always going to be challenging, trying to do it with absolutely no expertise and needing multi-billion dollar investments is the work of fantasists. And even if you did have the expertise, and someone crazy enough to pour in the funds, after Brexit you wouldn't risk that level of investment in Britain.
Well, IMO, the need for a large UK-based li-technology battery factory is so imprtant to the future of the country that HMG should do whatever is needed to get Tesla to take over the development of this site, you know, a company that has the knolwedge, experience, forsight, energy and quality of management to *get it done*.
Clearly the whole thing was originally concieved to make a small number of individuals very rich on the back of the 'EV-thing' at the expense of the UK tax-payer.
Now talk of another company, which seems to be as much of an expert in making batteries as BritishVolt (i.e. none) wanting to merge with them? Take nothing, mix in more of nothing, and what do you get?