By Guy Taylor
Lithium-ion and battery producer AMTE Power’s shares crashed more than 70 per cent today, following an announcement that the company needed to raise new funds within the next few weeks.
AMTE Power – who are currently set to build a £200m gigafactory in Dundee – said in the announcement that it needed to raise more cash in “no less than four weeks,” and that discussions with investors were ongoing.
It warned that without further funding the “recovery of value” by shareholders “would be uncertain.”
The group had previously said in December that it would need to raise more capital by April, in order to meet its operating costs.
It follows just a day after AMTE’s boss Alan Hollis threatened to build the group’s planned Dundee gigafactory overseas, unless the UK closed the clean energy subsidy gap – although it is not clear what impact today’s announcement would have on the project.
Any re-arrangement of plans to build the gigafactory would be a blow to the UK’s EV sector, which has come into the spotlight recently following concerns from industry that the UK’s battery manufacturing capacity and competitiveness was sub-par.
CEO Hollis said on Thursday: “AMTE Power is the UK’s only remaining homegrown commercial battery cell maker. We have established ourselves as a leading player in the sector, with differentiated lithium and sodium-ion technology on the cusp of commercialisation as indicated by our updates to the stock market in recent months.”
“We are active in our engagement with stakeholders to raise funding and to communicate the importance of developing a homegrown battery manufacturing industry to enable a just transition to net zero, support the UK’s energy security and unlock green industrial growth.”
