he Australian company which was supposedly meant to buy failed battery start-up Britishvolt has missed the deadline to pay for the business.
Filings from administrators at EY said the final instalment of a nearly £8.6 million payment, which was due on April 5, was still outstanding.
EY said that the buyer, Recharge Industries, had defaulted on its agreement to buy the business, which was meant to build a massive battery factory in the north east of England.
“The sale to the buyer had not completed as the final amount of deferred consideration was due to be paid on 5 April 2023,” the report from EY to creditors last week said.
“As detailed earlier in this report, this amount remains outstanding and as a result, the joint administrators have had to spend a greater amount of time than anticipated in taking steps to preserve and recover this amount.”
It added: “As noted in the proposals, the buyer purchased the company’s business and assets for £8.57 million.
“This amount was payable in a number of instalments. The final instalment remains unpaid and overdue. As a result, the buyer is in default of the business sale agreement.”
The report showed the Britishvolt likely owed somewhere between £130 million and £160 million when it went out of business.
The biggest debt, of around £26.7 million, is to DC Energy, a company which was meant to supply around 100 million euros (£86 million) worth of electrode manufacturing gear to the British start-up.
Korea’s Hana Technology, which also had an agreement to supply Britishvolt, was owed £22.3 million, while mining giant Glencore, an investor, was owed £20 million.
The taxman is also hoping to get around £3 million, largely in income tax and VAT, that the business owes to the exchequer.
The administrators managed to raise around £74,000 from selling off Britishvolt’s IT equipment and a further £77,000 by selling three vehicles used by staff.
Employees are owed around £279,000, the administrators at EY said.