Administrator says scale of money owed to creditors could top published figure

Several firms including NG Bailey, Gardiner & Theobald and Hoare Lea have been left out of pocket by the collapse of car battery manufacturer Britishvolt earlier this year.

A report by administrator EY says that the total amount owed to creditors so far is £94m – with the figure likely to be much higher.

EY, itself owed £4m, “estimated that total non-preferential creditor claims may be in the region of £130m to £160m” and added: “It is possible that this figure may prove to be materially higher or lower.” According to its report, trade creditors are owed just over £94m as of 8 March.

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Britishvolt had planned a £300m factory at this site in Cambois, Northumberland. ISG stopped working on the scheme last summer as funding began to run out

The report says Bailey, which owned more than 535,000 shares in Britishvolt, and sister firm, the Freedom Group of Companies, are owed just over £2m between them while G&T is missing close to £336,000.

Atkins is owed just over £41,000, landscape architect LDA Design a further £33,500 while Hoare Lea, bought in 2021 by US firm Tetra Tech, is owed £20,500. Avison Young is also missing £10,500.

Britishvolt sank into administration in January having racked up £154m in losses since being set up at the end of 2019. More than half this figure, £80m, was accumulated during the 11 months to November 2022, EY added.

The report said Britishvolt’s management had planned to raise £800m of equity in 2022, with a further £1.7bn to follow in subsequent years to fund its capital expenditure requirements.

But the firm ran into several liquidity problems and last October asked EY “to undertake more intensive contingency planning for a potential imminent administration”. Last summer ISG, which is not listed as a creditor, stopped work on Britishvolt’s planned £300m car bettery plant in Northumberland as funding dried up.

By the time EY was appointed in the middle of January, Britishvolt had just £1.8m of liquidity.

Britishvolt was bought out of administration at the end of last month by Recharge, an Australian battery firm start-up owned and run by New York-based investment fund Scale Facilitation.

The report said that Britishvolt’s 233 employees were owed just under £5.2m with £5m of this figure in unsecured claims with preferential claims totalling £189,500.

The report added: “We would note that the majority of the retained employees have transferred to [Recharge] under TUPE and, therefore, we would expect this specific claim to be materially lower than stated.”

Earlier this month, listed plant hire firm Ashtead, which trades as Sunbelt, said in its third quarter results that it had written off a £35m investment in Britishvolt, comprised of £31m in equity and a £4m convertible loan. Sunbelt owned 997,340 shares in the company, the EY report said.