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One of the biggest creditors in Volta Trucks, the electric vehicle start-up which filed for bankruptcy last month, is closing in on a deal to buy it from administrators.
Sky News has learnt that Luxor Capital Group, which was both a shareholder in and lender to Volta, is in advanced talks with the company’s administrators about a deal that could salvage hundreds of British jobs.
Automotive industry sources said on Thursday that Luxor had emerged as the likeliest buyer of the UK-based operation.
An agreement could be reached in the coming days, according to one executive in the sector, although they cautioned that the timetable could yet slip.
Volta Trucks filed for bankruptcy in Sweden, where the company is headquartered, last month, appointing administrators to its main UK business days later.
The company employed 600 people in the UK out of a total workforce of about 850, and although the precise numbers were unclear, a substantial proportion of the British jobs are expected to be saved.
Volta Trucks had been conducting customer trials of its all-electric vehicle, the Volta Zero, in both the UK and on the continent and recently opened a service hub in north London.
The emission-free truck, which has a range of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles), is designed to undertake multiple deliveries within a large town or city.
In February last year, the company raised €230m in a financing round in which Luxor Capital, a US-based credit hedge fund, participated.
Its other creditors are understood to include B-FLEXION.
Alvarez & Marsal, which has been handling Volta Trucks’ administration, refused to comment on Thursday.
Last month, the start-up said as it prepared to appoint administrators: “Piloting in five countries in Europe, we received fantastic feedback, which led to a strong pipeline of highly reputed customers who wanted to introduce our Volta Zero Trucks into their fleets.
“However, like all scale-ups in the EV manufacturing sector, Volta Trucks has faced challenges along the way.
“The recent news that our battery supplier [Proterra] has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, has had a significant impact on our manufacturing plans, reducing the volume of vehicles that we had forecast to produce.
“The uncertainty with our battery supplier also negatively affected our ability to raise sufficient capital in an already challenging capital-raising environment for electric vehicle players.”
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