Britishvolt collapse triggers £35m hit for listed…

Britishvolt collapse triggers £35m hit for listed plant hire firm Ashstead

A listed plant hire firm has revealed it took a £35m hit from the collapse of North East electric battery business Britishvolt.

Ashstead Group – which trades as Sunbelt – was a major investor in the start-up, which had hoped to build a £3.8bn battery manufacturer near Blyth, Northumberland, before crashing in January as it failed to secure the funds it needed. Last June the firm had announced a strategic partnership with Britishvolt which would have seen the manufacturer produce batteries for a range of heavy plant equipment – moves which would hopefully de-carbonise the construction and equipment rental sectors via electrification.

Britishvolt and Sunbelt had planned to jointly operate an ‘onsite rental facility’ in a boost to Britishvolt’s ESG strategy at the time.Now however, the FTSE 100 construction plant rental company has confirmed it will be taking a $42m (£35m) write-off on its investment in this year’s accounts, following Britishvolt’s failure.

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The Britishvolt plan would have likely been the largest job creating project in the North East since Nissan’s arrival in the 1980s, but the company was dogged with difficulties throughout its short history and could not raise enough money to build its planned gigaplant. Ashtead was one of the largest investors in Britishvolt alongside Glencore, the FTSE 100-listed commodities group which is understood to have invested more than £50m into Britishvolt.

In its latest results, covering the nine months and third quarter ended January 31 2023, Ashtead Group reports that it has written off a £31m equity investment and a £4m convertible loan that could have been switched into equity at a later date. Other investors into Britishvolt include NG Bailey, and Norwegian based Carbon Transition ASA.

In the stock exchange note the firm said: “During the period, the group made one new investment, namely Britishvolt ($42m), a UK company involved in the development of electric vehicle battery technology. In January 2023, Britishvolt entered administration following failure to secure additional funding and as a result, the group has estimated the fair value of its investment as $nil and consequently recognised a movement in the fair value of the equity component of its investment ($37m) through other comprehensive income and an impairment of the $5m convertible loan through the income statement.”

Australian firm Recharge Industries, which is owned by a New York-listed investment company, last month sealed the deal to buy car battery firm Britishvolt out of administration. The firm says it will create “thousands of green, skilled and local jobs” in Northumberland, in a scheme which is crucial for the future of the UK automotive industry, with all new cars manufactured after 2030 set to be electric vehicles.