Northvolt’s restructuring proceedings in the US have failed

The ailing battery maker Northvolt had filed for an emergency motion to end the Chapter 11 restructuring as quickly as possible. The company had filed for Chapter 11 in November, hoping to get back on its feet. At the time, founder Peter Carlsson also stepped down.

However, it has become apparent that there is little hope for the ailing battery maker. A few weeks ago, parent company Northvolt AB, as well as the subsidiaries Northvolt Ett AB, Northvolt Labs AB, Northvolt Revolt AB and Northvolt Systems AB filed for bankruptcy in Sweden and just a few days ago it was announced that staff there would be reduced to 1,700 people.

But back to the US. There, filing for Chapter 11 does not mean filing for bankruptcy in the sense of liquidation. Chapter 11 is often referred to as ‘reorganisation bankruptcy,’ meaning the company holds on to its assets and continues operations while working on a plan to repay creditors. In other words, it will continue honouring customer contracts, fulfilling vendor obligations, and paying employees wages. Nevertheless, the filing in Sweden is similar to Chapter 7 under US law, which means liquidation.

Northvolt’s lawyer believes that it would thus be best to keep the proceedings in Sweden because that is where most of the investors’ assets are located. Filing for Chapter 7 in the US would only cost the company additional legal fees.

Northvolt has been struggling

Earlier this week, Mikael Kubu, Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee in Sweden, said that he had reached a deal with shareholders to allow the company to continue scaled-down operations in Sweden. However, it also meant that nearly 3,000 will be cut.

Northvolt ran into increasing financial difficulties last year. On the one hand, the company faced “significant internal challenges in its ramp-up of production [at the Northvolt Ett factory], both in ways that were expected by engagement in what is a highly complex industry, and others which were unforeseen,” the company said a few weeks ago.

Almost two years after the start of production, the factory has still not produced the expected quantities, leading to a shortfall in planned sales and the cancellation of a billion-euro order by shareholder BMW over the summer. The situation became increasingly explosive as further financing proved more difficult due to the global situation and investors (partly due to their own problems) were no longer willing to inject more money. Northvolt subsequently abandoned its aggressive expansion strategy and sold off some of its subsidiaries. In February, Northvolt sold its module production to its customer Scania.

What will become of Northvolt’s German factory?

Northvolt is currently building a battery factory in northern Germany, which is funded in part through federal subsidies. So far, Northvolt Germany has not been part of any bankruptcy proceedings. However, experts told German media that the proceedings will of course affect German operations.

“Part of the estate includes the shares of the parent company in the German subsidiary. This is an asset that can be monetised,” Professor Wolf-Georg Ringe, Director of the Institute of Law & Economics at the University of Hamburg, told the German NDR. He suggests that it would be possible for the Swedish insolvency administrator to sell the German subsidiary separately.

ndr.de (in Geman), bloomberglaw.com (paywall)