Battery manufacturer Northvolt shows ambitions to go public – “Will need access to additional capital flow”.
[Onvista] The Swedish battery start-up Northvolt could also go public in the future to raise fresh money. The company will continue to have to finance itself, and at some point it is probably the right thing to be in the public capital market with this battery demand, Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson told the US business magazine “Business Insider”.The recent financing rounds have given the company some legroom, which is why there is no hurry. “But somehow we’re going to need access to the extra cash flow that comes with a stock market listing.”
Two weeks ago, Northvolt announced a new financing round of 2.75 billion US dollars, in which Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen participated in addition to various pension funds. After the additional investment of the equivalent of around half a billion euros, VW continues to hold a fifth of the start-up.
BMW has also held a stake in Northvolt for several years and has ordered battery cells worth billions from the Swedes for the future electric batteries.
The battery factory currently under construction in Skelleftea, northern Sweden, is now designed for an annual production capacity of 60 gigawatt hours of battery storage, of which 40 gigawatt hours are earmarked for Volkswagen and 15 gigawatt hours for Swedish carmaker Volvo,it was said earlier this week. Together with Volvo, Northvolt wants to build another plant in Europe with a capacity of 50 gigawatt hours.
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In total, Northvolt has raised $6.5 billion in funding so far, according to Carlsson. The construction of battery cell factories is expensive and lengthy. Carlsson is aiming for a market share in Europe of around 25 percent in electric car batteries and can also imagine an expansion into the USA after US President Joe Biden’s electromobility plans.
After the European electric battery market has so far been left mainly to Asian manufacturers, competition is slowly heating up: In addition to the emerging Teslabattery factory in Grünheide near Berlin, car giant Volkswagen including Skelleftea wants to raise six battery factories in Europe with a total of 240 gigawatt hours by 2030.
IPO: Battery manufacturer Northvolt shows ambitions to go public – “Will need access to additional cash flow”, July 23, 2021, in German
