An Australian company has been named as the preferred bidder to take over failed UK battery firm Britishvolt.
Start-up Recharge Industries was selected by auditors to buy the company, which had planned to build a £3.8 billion ($4.7 billion) plant in northern England that it said would create around 3,000 jobs.
Once considered the UK’s best candidate for a home-grown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt was declared bankrupt last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.
The deal is expected to be completed within the next week, administrator EY said.
“EY is pleased to announce that the joint administrators have entered into an agreement with Scale Facilitation Partners and its indirectly wholly owned subsidiary Recharge Industries Pty Ltd to be the preferred bidder in acquiring the majority of the business and assets of Power by Britishvolt Limited (in administration).
“This follows a process conducted by EY that involved the consideration of multiple approaches from interested parties and numerous offers received.
“Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur within the next seven days.”
Recharge Industries had submitted one of the two bids received for Britishvolt by the time the deadline for proposals had ended last week, sources said at the time.
The other bid came from a consortium of former Britishvolt investors.
The UK government backed the plans for Britishvolt’s gigafactory in January and said it would support the company with undisclosed funding, understood to be about £100 million.
However, the company has not yet received the funding.
It has faced uncertainty since last summer, when co-founder Orral Nadjari left the firm in July.
In the autumn it held urgent talks for more development funding until it could start production and generate its own revenue.
Recharge Industries is a subsidiary of Scale Facilitation Partners.
In addition to battery research and production through Recharge Industries, Scale Facilitation also invests in medical technology and artificial intelligence.
Recharge Industries is currently developing Australia’s first large-scale lithium-ion cell production facility, according to its website.
“After a competitive and rigorous process, we’re confident our proposal will deliver a strong outcome for all involved,” said David Collard, chief executive of Scale Facilitation and founder of Recharge Industries.
