11:53 am, November 2, 2022
Beleaguered battery firm Britishvolt has managed to find short-term funding that will keep it afloat for now.
The company, which has been developing a £3.8bn gigafactory at Cambois, near Blyth, in Northumberland, has secured five weeks of money from an unnamed investor, according to the Financial Times.
This, says Britishvolt, will enable it to ‘bridge over the coming weeks to a more secure funding position for the future’.
But employees have agreed a voluntary salary cut for November to help keep costs down.
The money was provided on condition of anonymity, said the FT, but the figure is understood to be in the single-digit millions of pounds. Britishvolt had previously said it needed £200m to keep going until summer 2023.
The firm had been holding urgent talks to secure financing to avoid going into administration.
Advisers from EY were lined up in case the company needed to enter insolvency, but it was confirmed today that discussions had guaranteed Britishvolt’s future to early December.
Meanwhile, the group is continuing to seek more investment to safeguard its viability in the longer term.
Britishvolt had hoped that the government would give it £30m for immediate support, but business secretary Grant Shapps rejected the appeal on Monday.
Britishvolt has also received tens of millions of pounds of financial backing from FTSE 100 metals firm Glencore.
In a statement, Britishvolt said: ‘We want to thank our employees, suppliers and investors for their continuing belief in Britishvolt.
‘It is important that Britishvolt is a success not only for the close-to-300 employees currently working for the company, but also for the many thousands of jobs we intend to create in the UK as we progress our plans.
‘The “Britishvolt effect” is also of huge strategic importance to UK plc and the country’s standing on the global battery stage.’
Britishvolt was established in 2019 and developed its own battery technology, which was shipped to various carmakers in September.
However, it is still months from receiving firm orders and has struggled to raise money this year because of market conditions collapsing, said the FT.
Chairman Peter Rolton told the newspaper that a major investor pulled out last week, and other potential backers had held off as a result of the UK’s political turmoil.
However, he said he was confident Britishvolt would get the extra money it needed to avoid bankruptcy by Christmas.
