U.S. battery developer Lyten has received final approval to acquire Swedish battery cell manufacturer Northvolt, clearing the way for the deal to close by the end of October, according to the company’s insolvency administrator.
The green light came from Sweden’s Inspektionen för strategiska produkter (ISP), which oversees strategic goods. Lyten, founded in 2015 in San Jose, California, specializes in lithium-sulphur batteries, while Northvolt has focused on NMC cell chemistry. The takeover, first announced in August, surprised many given Northvolt’s larger scale and ongoing projects in Sweden and Germany.
“With approval from the ISP, Lyten now has all the approvals it needs to take over Northvolt,” Northvolt’s insolvency administrator Mikael Kubu said. “The acquisition can therefore be completed by the end of October.”
As part of the deal, Lyten will acquire Northvolt’s planned factory in Heide, northern Germany, which was expected to deliver 15 GWh of annual battery production capacity and create around 3,000 jobs. However, it is not yet clear if Lyten will follow through with those employment plans. Construction progress at the site has been limited, with work until recently focused largely on infrastructure.
The future of €700 million in subsidies pledged by the German federal government and the state of Schleswig-Holstein also remains uncertain. Those funds had been earmarked for the Heide project, while €600 million previously granted to Northvolt is now tied up in insolvency proceedings.
To accelerate its European strategy, Lyten unveiled a new management team in early September made up largely of former Northvolt executives. Scania, which shifted to CATL batteries following Northvolt’s financial difficulties, has signalled interest in resuming talks with Lyten once the acquisition is complete.
Meanwhile, Lyten has faced challenges in Canada. The province of Québec has withdrawn its support for a Northvolt factory project, saying it will not provide additional subsidies.
Source: ndr.de