The German minister's statement about Northvolt was made in an interview with the German news agency DPA on Saturday.
After months marked by an increasingly acute financial crisis, Northvolt applied for bankruptcy protection in a court in Texas, USA on Thursday. Northvolt's CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson announced the day after the application that he is resigning.
"Can end well"
According to court documents in Texas, among other things, Northvolt has paused plans for battery factories in Germany and Canada, projects handled by subsidiaries that are not covered by the bankruptcy protection.
The procedure they have chosen now can end well, says Habeck to DPA, according to the news agency Bloomberg.
Northvolt wants to restructure a debt mountain of approximately 60 billion kronor under the bankruptcy protection and bring in new capital on top of the 90 billion that has already been pumped into the company by the owners – with Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs at the forefront.
Peter Carlsson said in connection with the announcement that he will be moving on to board work and a more advisory role within Northvolt, stating that it will require around 13 billion kronor to finance the business plan the company wants to move forward with.
Hunt for financing
Just over a year ago, Northvolt invited investment bankers to discuss a possible IPO, where a valuation of around 20 billion dollars (equivalent to 220 billion kronor) was mentioned. However, the IPO plans were scrapped after just a few months.
After a series of production setbacks, including to truck manufacturer Scania – and subsequently BMW's decision to withdraw a large order in June – things have gone downhill for the company. The autumn has been marked by an unsuccessful hunt for new multi-billion financing, large staff cuts, abandoned projects, and bankrupt subsidiaries, as well as allegations of breach of contract from collaboration partners such as Volvo Cars.
Corrected version: An earlier version used an incorrectly translated title for Robert Habeck.
