The Australian firm that successfully bid to take over the stalled Britishvolt project in Northumberland faces being struck off the register of British companies.
A first Gazette notice of compulsory strike off has been published at Companies House against Scale Facilitation, the parent company of Recharge Industries, which agreed an £8.6m deal with the administrators to buy the business and assets of failed battery start-up Britishvolt. That deal, which revived hopes of a gigafactory employing 3,000 people at Cambois, was announced in February but has yet to be completed.
Earlier this year it emerged Recharge Industries had defaulted on its payments to administrators EY, having missed deadlines. Meanwhile Scale Facilitation, which also operates out of New York, saw its Australian offices raided by police investigating potential tax fraud.
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Now, a new signal the the deal could be in jeopardy has emerged as Scale Facilitation has received the compulsory strike off notice as it is overdue filing a confirmation statement - a publicly available document that shows information such as shareholders and people with significant control and is legally required to be filed every 12 months. The firm now has two months in which to take action before it could be forcibly wound up.
The development comes as there have been reports of a former Recharge Industries employee starting legal action to reclaim unpaid wages while others have lodged complaints to an employment tribunal. The Financial Times reports that Recharge may be trading while insolvent and that staff have not been paid for at least four months.
Britishvolt's vision had the potential to be one of the most important schemes for the North East economy in decades. As well as aiming to bring thousands of jobs to a disadvantaged part of the North East, the gigafactory would be crucial to both the future of the UK automotive industry and the country’s net zero ambitions in providing batteries for the growing electric vehicles market.
After a period of speculation the start-up collapsed into administration in January, with debts of more than £150m. It had no revenue or intellectual property and despite needing to raise around £4bn for the project, only a fraction of the initial target of £800m was met.
Scale Facilitation has been contacted for comment.
