Northvolt subsidiary files for bankruptcy after project pulled
Updates with court filing in paragraph 1, adds debt in paragraph 2, 7-8, company comments in paragraphs 4-5, 10
STOCKHOLM, Oct 8 (Reuters) -A subsidiary of corpdSweden's Northvolt filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after the project it was developing was cancelled, court filings showed, while the rest of the cash-strapped battery making group continued to consolidate operations.
The Northvolt Ett Expansion AB unit had debts estimated at between 2 billion and 3 billion Swedish crowns ($194 million and $290 million), a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee told business daily Dagens Industri.
It had been responsible for a planned tripling of capacity at the group's gigafactory in northern Sweden, but the company's board last month cancelled the project.
"This is a necessary step as the expansion of Northvolt Ett has been halted and further investments in it would have risked the financial basis for Northvolt," a spokesperson for the group said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Tuesday's bankruptcy filing had no impact on any of the Northvolt Group's other businesses, the spokesperson said.
Northvolt said in September it would slim down and cut jobs, sparking fears that Europe's best shot at a home-grown electric vehicle battery champion may stall due to production problems, sluggish demand and competition from China.
On the day of its filing, Northvolt Ett Expansion AB had around 459,000 Swedish crowns of debt that was in default and faced claims of 47 million crowns in overdue bills, Sweden's debt enforcement authority Kronofogden told Reuters.
Other Northvolt units had overdue bills amounting to about 85 million crowns, according to Kronofogden.
"Northvolt Group continues to be in dialogue with stakeholders for continued cooperation within Northvolt Group's ongoing operations," the company said in a statement.
The Northvolt group declined to comment on the level of debt at Northvolt Ett Expansion AB.
Northvolt has previously received more than $10 billion in equity and debt financing from players including Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, filings show, and has been trying to raise more money to fund its expensive ramp-up.
At the start of the year, Northvolt had clinched a $5 billion green loan package deal with a group of lenders, intended to pay for a large plant expansion in Sweden, but the cancellation last month of the construction project put the funding at risk.
($1 = 10.3384 Swedish crowns)
Reporting by Marie Mannes in Stockholm, Terje Solsvik in Oslo and Essi Lehto in Helsinki, editing by Alexander Smith and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
