Freyr Battery SA is in talks with KKR & Co. Inc. – Bloomberg reports – about raising financing, according to people familiar with the matter, sending shares higher by more than 10%. The Norwegian battery company is discussing raising $500 million from KKR, said one of the people, who asked to not be identified because the details are private. The company’s financing discussions could be disclosed as soon as this week, Bloomberg reports.
Freyr’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Tom Einar Jensen, declined to comment when asked about the financing talks on the company’s earnings call Monday.
With a market value of about $1.7 billion, Freyr went public through a special purpose acquisition company last year. It produces so-called clean batteries for reducing emissions, according to its website.
Earlier this month, Freyr said it had purchased a site in Coweta County, Georgia, for a multi-phase Giga America clean battery manufacturing project. The company, which is trading above its SPAC price, closed the week up nearly 5%.
Freyr teamed up with conglomerate Koch Industries last year to evaluate and develop clean battery cell manufacturing in the US.
The company reported a net loss of $93.9 million compared with a net loss a year earlier of $45.4 million. Its loss of 80 cents per share missed analyst estimates of a loss of 30 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The company said it had $418.6 million in cash as of Sept. 30.
Source:batteryindustry
