UK battery firm Britishvolt eyes US SPAC deal
Britishvolt, the developer of a giant battery factory in the UK, is considering going public and eyeing options in the US.
The company has appointed Barclays and Guggenheim Capital to explore an IPO which could include a merger with a special acquisition purpose company.
SPACs are the latest phenomenon to grip global equity markets with high-profile investors piling money into the blank-cheque vehicles. They are shell companies that are listed on the stock exchange and then merged with target businesses.
The largely US phenomenon has fuelled a rush of deals worth $1.3 trillion in the first quarter, according to figures published by Refinitiv today. A number of the biggest deals involved a SPAC, with the value of combinations totalling $172bn.
“The SPAC market is very interesting and is the result of the very mature capital markets in the US that have identified the industrial revolution that is happening now, when we go from the era of internal combustion engine towards an era of electrification,” founder and chief executive Orral Nadjari said. “There will be a lot of scale-ups that will need a lot of capital.”
It is the first time Britishvolt has spoken about plans to finance its £2.6bn project to make batteries for electric vehicles. The UK is set to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and needs a new factory to produce electric vehicle batteries.