Britishvolt’s new Australian owner, Recharge Industries, could face bankruptcy proceedings, according to the Financial Times, after being served with a statutory demand over unpaid wages.
The developer of a proposed electric vehicle battery gigafactory in Northumberland went into administration in January and was bought by Recharge in February for £8.57 million.
Recharge, a portfolio company of US-Australian investment group Scale Facilitation, has paid £6.1 million of the fee.
Filings in the summer from administrators EY revealed the final instalment due in April was still outstanding, meaning Recharge was in default of the business sale agreement, and that Britishvolt owed at least £130 million when it went out of business, including around £279,000 to employees.
Several Britishvolt employees who moved over to the new owner told the newspaper that they had not been paid for four months.
One former employee this week served a statutory demand on the company, giving 21 days to pay the outstanding wages or else bankruptcy proceedings could be pursued against Recharge.
When Britishvolt was taken over, David Collard, founder and CEO of Scale Facilitation, said: “Our proposal combined our financial, commercial, technology and manufacturing capabilities, with a highly credible plan to put boots and equipment on the ground quickly.”
He said Scale’s backing, combined with “strategic delivery partners and a number of significant customer agreements in place”, meant the firm “can’t wait to get started and want to start as soon as possible”.