Bankrupt Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, which raised more than $13bn in debt and equity during its lifetime before crashing into administration last year, is still looking for a buyer for its core assets and factory Northvolt Ett.
At the end of March it laid off more than half of its 4,500 employees, and last Thursday formally suspended its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US.
The Swedish group has been selling off manufacturing equipment meant for its factory expansion in Skellefteå in northern Sweden; Northvolt Ett Expansion, a subsidiary set up to lead the expansion, filed for bankruptcy in October.
Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee, Mikael Kuba, has previously said that he is looking to find buyers for the whole or parts of the core business and that there have been several interested buyers — from Sweden and overseas.
Leaks about potential buyers have however been few and far between. Here’s who might open their wallets to snap up the company’s assets.
The potential buyers of Northvolt
Chinese battery manufacturers
One idea floated by three industry sources in the wider battery sector is that Chinese companies could buy the factory.
Chinese battery manufacturers are already invested in building factories across Europe, and Northvolt’s factory could be an opportunity.
Chinese company CATL is the world’s leading EV battery manufacturer, and has captured more than one-third of the market. It currently operates battery plants in Germany and Hungary, and recently announced a joint venture with Dutch car maker Stellantis to build a new battery plant in Spain.
However, there are European and national laws around foreign takeovers, especially from Chinese buyers, of companies like Northvolt.
Daniel Brandell, a professor of materials chemistry at Sweden’s Uppsala University, tells Sifted that Chinese companies already successfully own Swedish businesses.
Swedish car manufacturer Volvo Cars was acquired by Chinese car manufacturer Geely in 2010 before Volvo Cars went public in 2021. Geely still owns a majority of shares, however, this hasn’t stopped the company from being seen as Swedish.
“We still consider Volvo Cars a Swedish company,” Brandell says. A sale of Northvolt to a Chinese buyer, however, would likely not be perceived the same way — and would also require approval from the Swedish government, he adds.
The car manufacturers
European car manufacturers, such as Volkswagen and Renault, have also been mentioned as potential buyers, by Swedish economist Claes Hemberg.
Volkswagen, which is one of the largest investors in Northvolt with a 21% stake, has been working on a battery factory with Chinese company Gotion High-Tech in Germany since 2021. However, with Volkswagen facing a recent crisis — caused by a drop in sales and slow growth in the electric vehicle (EV) sector due to tough competition from Chinese manufacturers — the company announced in October that it would shut down three factories and lay off 10% of its workforce.
“It’s maybe not the right time for these companies to buy a battery factory,” says Brandell. “Carmakers haven’t traditionally been battery producers; they don’t generally have the technical know-how,” he adds. “In comparison, they’ve only been in the game for a decade, and much like Northvolt, they’re beginners […] but they may be better at building factories and running industrial operations.”
A Northvolt backer
Many locals would prefer a Swedish company to take over the factory. According to a former employee at Northvolt, potential buyers were visiting the factory in Skellefteå before the company went bankrupt, but “there wasn’t enough time to finalise a deal.”
Marie Karlsson-Tuula, a professor of insolvency law at several Swedish universities, tells Sifted that following the conclusion of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, one of Northvolt’s backers or customers may want to buy parts of the company.
“I can imagine that some of the original backers who helped out during Chapter 11 might be interested in parts of the business,” she says.
One of those backers is truck manufacturer Scania, which lent Northvolt €100m in January to help it through the restructuring. In February, Scania, which is also a customer of Northvolt, acquired Northvolt’s Systems Industrial division, which produces battery systems for industrial use, and employs people at an R&D facility in Stockholm and a production facility in Gdańsk, Poland.
Another company that has worked closely with Northvolt is Volvo Cars, which recently took over a battery factory they were setting up together in Gothenburg.
However, Brandell says that Swedish companies generally lack the necessary expertise for battery production.
“The technical expertise is where things went wrong — both in materials and on the assembly line. The knowledge of how to build batteries just isn’t sufficient in Sweden,” he says.
“It would be good to have a Swedish player involved — we’ll build up that competence over time — and Swedish economic interests must be the ones steering the ship,” he says.
“Much of the real value lies in the active materials — that’s the selling point of the factory. Producing those materials is energy-intensive, so if you’re going to do it, you should aim to do as much as possible in-house,” Brandell adds.
So who would have the expertise? According to Brandell, manufacturers from Japan, South Korea or China are the most qualified to take on Northvolt.
He cites South Korean LG Energy Solution, a large battery manufacturer, as a company with the right expertise, as well as Japanese multinational Panasonic.
“Panasonic’s technology is what Tesla’s batteries are based on, so that could be an alternative,” he says. “But a partner from South Korea or China would also be ideal,” he adds.
The Swedish government
One other potential solution is for the state to intervene, says PJ Pärson, partner at European VC Northzone.
“No one has anything to win politically by standing up and doing this, but with the current trade landscape, Europe is on its own, and battery manufacturing is a strategic issue,” Pärson says.
Sweden has a history of both running and rescuing companies, as it did during the banking crisis in the 90s, but the current government has distanced itself from the Northvolt situation and previously refused to back it financially.
“The state could say, ‘We’ll buy Northvolt and invite some investors to restart it.’ That would probably be the smartest economic move,” Pärson says. “Sweden could probably negotiate quite hard, with the state in a strong position.
“The alternative is likely that someone picks the low-hanging fruit, and Sweden is left with the closure costs,” he adds.
Brandell agrees that such a solution could work, but he believes the current government is not particularly focused on alternative green energy sources.
“The global demand for batteries is rising, driven by the green transition. There may be temporary overproduction now, but looking toward 2050, we would miss the green transition if we don’t keep up production. That would be a bigger loss,” Brandell says.
Kubu and the Swedish government did not respond to requests for comment from Sifted.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/who-could-buy-northvolt/
