10:43 am, August 9, 2023
The Australian company that had said it would buy failed battery factory start-up Britishvolt has missed the deadline to pay for it.
Recharge Industries’ final instalment of the near-£8.6m total that was due on April 5 is still outstanding, according to filings from administrators at EY.
‘The sale to the buyer had not completed as the final amount of deferred consideration was due to be paid on 5 April 2023,’ a report last week from EY to creditors said.
‘As detailed earlier in this report, this amount remains outstanding and as a result, the joint administrators have had to spend a greater amount of time than anticipated in taking steps to preserve and recover this amount.’
The report added: ‘As noted in the proposals, the buyer purchased the company’s business and assets for £8.57 million.
‘This amount was payable in a number of instalments. The final instalment remains unpaid and overdue. As a result, the buyer is in default of the business sale agreement.’
According to the report, Britishvolt – which planned to build a gigafactory in Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland – probably owed somewhere between £130m and £160m when it went out of business.
The biggest debt, of around £26.7m, is to DC Energy – a company that was meant to supply around 100m euros (£86m) of electrode manufacturing gear to the British start-up.
South Korea’s Hana Technology, which also had an agreement to supply Britishvolt, was owed £22.3m, while mining giant investor Glencore was owed £20m.
The taxman is also hoping to get around £3m, largely in income tax and VAT, that the business owes the exchequer.
The administrators have managed to raise around £74,000 from selling off Britishvolt’s IT equipment and a further £77,000 by selling three vehicles used by staff.
Employees are owed around £279,000, the administrators at EY said.
