Swedish comet on its way to the stock exchange: could be Europe's biggest IPO since several years
At Northvolt's factory in Skellefteå in northern Sweden, batteries for electric cars from Volkswagen and BMW, both co-owners of the company, are produced, among other things. The factory here has a capacity of 16 gigawatt-hour batteries, corresponding to batteries for around 300,000 electric cars per year.
Eight-year-old battery maker Northvolt plans to go public next year and has the prospect of reaching a larger, triple-digit billion valuation.
There is money – lots and lots of money – in producing batteries right now. The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt[1] stands to be worth up to 20 billion dollars in an upcoming IPO, writes the British financial newspaper Financial Times[2]. This is far more than both Visa and Facebook achieved when they went public in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
The eight-year-old Northvolt[3] aims to build the world's greenest battery with the smallest CO₂ footprint in production and subsequent use and with the greatest possible recycling. The company, which both produces lithium-ion batteries and battery systems and is the largest in Europe in its field, was founded by the two former Tesla executives Peter Carlsson and Paolo Cerutti, who are now respectively CEO and deputy commander in charge of day-to-day operations . They have the Danish businessman Jim Hagemann Snabe as chairman of the board. He is also chairman of the board of the German conglomerate Siemens and for some years was chairman of the board of the Mærsk group in Denmark. Previously, he himself was co-CEO of the German IT giant SAP.
According to the Financial Times, the Swedish battery manufacturer will go public in Stockholm, probably in 2024, and with the prospect of 20 billion dollars or almost 141 billion Danish kroner, it will be one of the largest stock market listings for a European company in several years. Northvolt itself will not comment on information about the preliminary plans for the stock market listing, which may change.
The battery market is hot
Northvolt dances with the wave that carries battery manufacturers forward.[4] The batteries are the decisively important part of the advancing electric car market and to be able to store energy – typically green power produced by wind turbines or solar cells.
There is a race going on to develop and produce the most efficient batteries, which are also manufactured in the most energy-friendly and environmentally friendly way with materials that are sustainable and cheap.
At the same time, the rest of the world is struggling to free itself from the firm grip that China currently has on the world's battery production by virtue of the many raw materials that China possesses and which are included in battery production. This has led both the EU and the US to open state support for battery manufacturers to establish themselves in the two areas of the world. Here, Northvolt has a clear trump card by virtue of its Swedish origins.
Among Northvolt's owners are the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the German car giant Volkswagen (VW), which is the world's second largest car manufacturer after Japan's Toyota. BMW, Siemens and the capital fund Blackstone have also bought into Northvolt, which is headquartered in Stockholm, but has production in Skellefteå[5], Västerås[6], Gothenburg[7] (together with Volvo) and Borlänge[8] in Sweden, as well as in Gdansk in northern Poland and in Heide west of the city Kiel in Northern Germany. The construction of a sixth factory will be started before the new year just outside Montreal in Canada and should be completed in 2026. It is part of Northvolt's five billion dollar investment in the North American market.[9] According to the Financial Times, Northvolt is the European entrepreneurial company that has raised the most capital.
Thomas Breinstrup, Svensk komet på vej på børsen: Kan blive Europas største børsnotering i flere år , in: Berlingske 24-10-2023; https://www.berlingske.dk/virksomheder/svensk-komet-paa-vej-paa-boersen-kan-blive-europas-stoerste
[1] Northvolt AB is a Swedish battery developer and manufacturer, specializing in lithium-ion technology for electric vehicles. Northvolt is building a factory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, and another one in Salzgitter, Germany, as part of Northvolt's plan to increase production capacity of 32 gigawatt-hours by 2023. Its headquarters for research and development is in Västerås, Sweden. https://northvolt.com/
[2] Northvolt plans Stockholm listing for potential $20bn IPO. Battery maker could go public as soon as next year in one of the largest IPOs for a European company in recent years; https://www.ft.com/content/ca7a87b7-8f37-411e-851e-cb83750dba0f
[3] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/668037918724669440/a-battery-for-cars-made-from-old-batteries?source=share&ref=_tumblr & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/672075783410434048/swedish-northvolt-kicks-off-european-battery?source=share&ref=_tumblr
[4] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/732253772398657536/automotive-stellantis-and-orano-join-forces-in?source=share&ref=_tumblr & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/682712149928394752/umicore-becomes-major-supplier-for-electric?source=share&ref=_tumblr & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/713316858967801856/canadian-li-cycle-sets-up-a-battery-recycling?source=share&ref=_tumblr & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/709766435386392576/france-allocates-30-million-euros-to-2-battery?source=share&ref=_tumblr
[5] Skellefteå is a city in Västerbotten County, Sweden. It is the seat of Skellefteå Municipality, which had 74,402 inhabitants in 2022
[6] Västerås is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, 100 kilometres west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653. Västerås is the seat of Västerås Municipality, the capital of Västmanland County and an episcopal see.
[7] Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg) is the capital of Västra Götaland County in Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. It is situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, with a population of approximately 600,000 in the city proper and about 1.1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area.The city's population increased by 9,292 during 2022
[8] Borlänge is a locality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 44,898 inhabitants as of 2020. It is the seat of the Borlänge Municipality with a total population of 51,604 inhabitants as of 2017.
[9] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/726885760561725440/billion-dollar-investment-for-swedish-battery?source=share&ref=_tumblr