Power by Britishvolt Limited

We last reported on collapsed startup lithium-ion battery manufacturer Power by Britishvolt last month, when Joint Administrators Dan Hurd, Joanne Robinson and Alan Hudson of EY reached a deal with Recharge Production UK Limited ("Recharge") to acquire Britishvolt for approximately £8.6 million.

Under the terms of the deal, Recharge also agreed to acquire the company’s shares in subsidiary Power by Britishvolt Properties Limited ("BVP"), the entity that owns the Gigaplant. In order to do so, it needed to settle a £9.7m debt owing to Katch Fund Solutions ("Katch"), which holds security over the shares of BVP owned by the company and certain land and assets held by BVP.

Now, it has been reported that Recharge missed the deadline to pay the £9.7m to Katch last week because it has been unable to resolve a dispute with the Joint Administrators over payments related to transferring a grid connection contract for the site with National Grid.

Recharge is said to be threatening to walk away from the deal unless it can have certainty over the status of its access to a grid connection, while the Joint Administrators have stated that they are “not requesting that Recharge make any additional payments beyond those contractually agreed as part of the sale”.

The Joint Administrators have not reported on the alleged issues surrounding the sale, but their proposals, which outline the terms of the proposed sale, can be found HERE.

The Joint Administrators have been assisted by Dentons.