Scale Facilitation misses final payment for Britishvolt battery firm

The Australian businessman behind a rescue bid for a failed British electric vehicle battery firm has missed the deadline for the final payment to seal the deal.

The Australian company that promised to save a British electric vehicle battery business has failed to make the final payment to seal the deal, the latest twist in its growing financial woes.

Scale Facilitation, run by New York-based Australian entrepreneur David Collard, has recently fallen behind on wages owed to its staff including in Victoria, where its offices were raided in June by the Australian Federal Police.

It was revealed last weekend that the AFP and the Australian Taxation Office are probing an alleged tax fraud amounting to $150 million across four associated businesses.

David Collard in Scale Facilitation’s One World Trade Center office in New York. Picture: Abby Holden

After the AFP raid, Scale Facilitation said in a statement: “The company denies any wrongdoing and is working with legal and other advisers to defend any matters arising from these discussions.”

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Collard.

Mr Collard’s top priority had been establishing a “gigafactory” under Scale’s Recharge Industries brand to produce batteries near Geelong, before he pivoted earlier this year to acquire Britishvolt, an ambitious UK start-up that collapsed in January.

EY-Parthenon, which took charge of the administration, said in its latest update that Recharge had agreed to purchase Britishvolt for £8.57m ($16.6m) in a series of instalments.

“The final instalment remains unpaid and overdue,” administrator Dan Hurd said.

“As a result, the buyer is in default of the business sale agreement.”

However, in a statement, a Scale Facilitation spokeswoman disputed that the company was in default of its agreement to take over the British firm.

She said Scale Facilitation anticipated the deal would be finalised this month.

“The timing of the final instalment to the administrator is linked to a funding facility which when closed, will also cover the cost of the land acquisition and provide additional working capital for the project,” the spokeswoman said

David Collard with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Picture: Supplied

“Closing out the transaction will allow for the allocation of highly valuable intellectual property and binding customer orders to fast track the UK project.”

Ian Lavery, a local MP representing the Northumberland region where Britishvolt is based, told ITV News that the missed payment was “extremely concerning news and will do nothing to give confidence to the community who are crying out for this investment”.

He said Mr Collard had assured him that “despite some difficulties, the project will continue”.

Mr Hurd said the administrators were pursuing “the outstanding amounts due from the buyer”.

He added that Recharge also missed a deadline to pay £300,000 ($582,000) to cover costs incurred by EY-Parthenon, but that part of that amount had since been paid.

“Due to commercial sensitivities surrounding the current status of this matter, the joint administrators cannot comment on this situation any further at the moment,” Mr Hurd said.