Northvolt plans Stockholm listing for potential $20bn IPO

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Northvolt is looking to list its shares in Stockholm over other venues for one of the largest flotations for a European company in recent years.

The Swedish battery maker has invited investment banks to pitch formally for roles in the deal that could value the company at roughly $20bn, while Rothschild & Co has been providing advice on the initial public offering process, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company, which was founded in 2017 by two former Tesla executives to become Europe’s largest homegrown battery maker, could go public as soon as next year. However, its plans are preliminary and could change, especially as market conditions remain volatile, the people said.

Northvolt and Rothschild declined to comment.

“They want to be ready to go, whenever the market conditions are right. They want everything in place,” said one person familiar with the proposed listing.

Andreas Pettersson Rohman, its head of corporate finance, told the Financial Times’s sister publication Sifted this year: “We have worked for more than a year to get all processes and internal controls in place and then it will be up to the market to judge. Let’s see how the market looks in the next year or two.”

Northvolt is backed by investors including Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Volkswagen. It raised €1.2bn in convertible bonds from investors including the world’s largest money manager BlackRock this year.

It is also planning to unveil more than $5bn in debt financing in the coming weeks, confirming a FT story from March, as it cements its status as the European start-up that has raised the most capital.

Northvolt, whose investors include BMW, Siemens and Blackstone, needs the funding for the four gigafactories it is building or planning as well as several battery recycling facilities and other plants in Europe and North America.

It will start construction of the factory just outside Montreal, Canada this year and aims to start production in 2026 as part of a $5bn bet on the North American market, as well as an attempt to secure better access to crucial minerals needed for batteries.

European and North American countries are locked in a subsidy battle to attract local battery makers to rival the dominant Asian players. VW told EU officials this year that US subsidies — which Canada has largely promised to match, according to companies — were worth about €9bn-€10bn per factory.