Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee has received an indicative bid from a foreign party for the company’s Swedish operations, the trustee told Swedish public radio on Tuesday. Northvolt, which filed for bankruptcy in March, had been viewed as Europe’s most promising challenger to Chinese battery manufacturers before its collapse.
“We now have an indicative offer on the table and hope for more indicative bids,” bankruptcy trustee Mikael Kubu told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.
“We expect to receive another indicative offer during the day,” he said.
In May, Kubu indicated that the Skellefteå plant would wind down production by the end of June unless a buyer was found. Talks with potential buyers have been ongoing since the bankruptcy filing. If the indicative bids proceed to binding offers, they could pave the way for continued operations at Northvolt’s key facilities and preserve jobs tied to the Skellefteå factory and the Västerås research center.
The Swedish bankruptcy filing in March marked one of the country’s largest corporate failures in recent years, abruptly halting Northvolt’s plans to scale up production of lithium-ion battery cells in Europe. The company had secured substantial investment from both private and public sources and aimed to reduce Europe’s dependence on Asian battery suppliers.
Efforts to reach Kubu for further comment were unsuccessful. It remains unclear whether any binding bids will be submitted and what conditions potential buyers might attach to their offers. The outcome of these negotiations is likely to have significant implications for Europe’s ambitions to establish a domestic battery supply chain and support the growing electric vehicle market.
As Northvolt’s future hangs in the balance, stakeholders in the automotive and energy storage sectors will be watching closely to see if the indicative bids translate into concrete plans for the company’s facilities in Sweden.
Source: Reuters
