On Monday evening, the German government announced that it would take over a loan obligation to Northvolt from the state-owned investment bank KFW on more than 600 million euros (almost 7 billion kronor) at the federal level.
The loan obligation – which can be converted to shares – was part of the financing of Northvolt's factory construction in Germany.
To develop synergies
The state of Schleswig-Holstein has guaranteed around half of the loan and will replace the German federal state for that part, reports Bloomberg, citing a spokesperson for the German government.
The new factory manager, Markus Dangelmaier, comes from a management role at the electronics company TE Connectivity and will take office on January 2. According to Northvolt, he will, among other things, try to develop synergies between the Swedish factory and the company's factory constructions in Germany and Canada.
Led by a troika
The financially strained battery manufacturer Northvolt applied – after unsuccessfully seeking capital injections and new billion-dollar loans in the fall – for bankruptcy protection in a court in Texas, USA, in November. The company had then stopped several projects and laid off about a fifth of its workforce during the fall.
CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson resigned the day after the application was submitted.
The recruitment of a new CEO is ongoing, according to Northvolt. The company management is temporarily a troika consisting of Pia Aaltonen-Forsell, CFO, Mattias Arleth, operational manager, and Scott Millar, restructuring manager.
Northvolt's debt mountain amounted to over 60 billion kronor according to the bankruptcy protection application in the USA, submitted on November 21. At that time, there were approximately 300 million kronor in cash assets.
The reconstruction of Northvolt planned under bankruptcy protection is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2025.
Northvolt had around 7,000 employees at the end of October, most of them in Skellefteå, Västerås, and Stockholm. The company also had hundreds of employees in Poland, Germany, and Canada.
