(Bloomberg) -- Swiss industrial group ABB Ltd. has no plans to provide further financing to troubled battery maker Northvolt AB, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.
ABB is one of a number of minority shareholders in the Swedish group that is racing to secure a $300 million bailout to stay afloat. Talks for an emergency funding package, sewn together with contributions from shareholders, lenders and customers, are in the final stages, Bloomberg News reported last week.
An ABB spokesperson declined to comment on the funding situation. “We have confidence that Northvolt has initiated the appropriate measures to address the challenges the company is facing at the moment,” the representative added in emailed comments.
The stopgap infusion would only buy time for the electric-vehicle supplier to fix its many challenges. Chief among them are securing a much larger, more-permanent financing package, and improving operations that ate up about $1.67 billion in cash over the last two calendar years, according to its last annual report.
Northvolt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ABB joins a list of other investors and customers who have also ruled out putting more cash into the new emergency funding round, underscoring how strained the financial situation has become for Northvolt. On Wednesday, the chief executive of Volvo Car AB told Bloomberg the automaker wouldn’t inject more capital. There have been similar positions reported by owners Norrsken VC, BMW AG and Skelleftea Kraft.
‘We were one of the first investors in Northvolt and we believe there are good conditions for establishing a green industry in Skelleftea that contributes to a European battery value chain,” a spokeswoman for Skelleftea Kraft, a utility, said by email.
Northvolt’s founder, Harald Mix, and its chief executive officer, Peter Karlsson, have both said they will provide fresh capital.
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