WORKERS CAPITAL
Caisse pumps C$200 million into Swedish EV battery maker NorthvoltJeffrey Jones - The Globe and Mail | November 16, 2023
Northvolt Ett main production site for battery cells in Sweden.
(Image courtesy of Northvolt).
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is investing C$200-million in a Swedish electric-vehicle battery maker that is about to break ground on a new manufacturing plant in the greater Montreal area.
With the investment in Northvolt AB, the Caisse joins a number of other Canadian pension plans in backing the company, whose entrance into Quebec has been touted by the provincial government as a key part of a strategy to become a major battery-making hub.
Construction of the plant, which has a price tag estimated at C$7-billion, is expected to start by the end of this year in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, outside of Montreal. It is designed to have an annual production capacity of as much as 60 gigawatt hours, with equipment for cathode active material, cells and recycled materials.
The company announced in late September it had picked the location out of a number of North American options.
Northvolt, which operates a major facility in Sweden, has signed deals to supply such automakers as Volkswagen, BMW, Scania AB, Volvo Cars and Polestar. Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System have sizable investments in the company, as does BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager.
The battery industry is a “high-interest sector” for the Caisse because it is expected to expand rapidly as the transition to lower-carbon energy accelerates over the next decade, Kim Thomassin, the public pension plan’s executive vice-president and head of Québec, said in a statement. The investment in Northvolt is in the form of convertible debt in the parent company.
Paolo Cerruti, Northvolt’s co-founder and chief executive of its North American division, said in the statement that the Caisse was involved in the process for wooing the company to Quebec for several months.
In September, Quebec Premier François Legault said the province is seeking to lock up more deals in the battery industry, having already clinched projects representing half of a C$30-billion target.
Among those, General Motors Co. is partnering with South Korean battery material maker Posco Chemical Co. Ltd. on a new cathode factory in Bécancour, Que. Ford Motor Co. is working with South Korea’s EcoProBM and SK On Co. Ltd. on a C$1.2-billion plant that would produce EV battery materials in that same city.
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is investing C$200-million in a Swedish electric-vehicle battery maker that is about to break ground on a new manufacturing plant in the greater Montreal area.
With the investment in Northvolt AB, the Caisse joins a number of other Canadian pension plans in backing the company, whose entrance into Quebec has been touted by the provincial government as a key part of a strategy to become a major battery-making hub.
Construction of the plant, which has a price tag estimated at C$7-billion, is expected to start by the end of this year in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, outside of Montreal. It is designed to have an annual production capacity of as much as 60 gigawatt hours, with equipment for cathode active material, cells and recycled materials.
The company announced in late September it had picked the location out of a number of North American options.
Northvolt, which operates a major facility in Sweden, has signed deals to supply such automakers as Volkswagen, BMW, Scania AB, Volvo Cars and Polestar. Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System have sizable investments in the company, as does BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager.
The battery industry is a “high-interest sector” for the Caisse because it is expected to expand rapidly as the transition to lower-carbon energy accelerates over the next decade, Kim Thomassin, the public pension plan’s executive vice-president and head of Québec, said in a statement. The investment in Northvolt is in the form of convertible debt in the parent company.
Paolo Cerruti, Northvolt’s co-founder and chief executive of its North American division, said in the statement that the Caisse was involved in the process for wooing the company to Quebec for several months.
In September, Quebec Premier François Legault said the province is seeking to lock up more deals in the battery industry, having already clinched projects representing half of a C$30-billion target.
Among those, General Motors Co. is partnering with South Korean battery material maker Posco Chemical Co. Ltd. on a new cathode factory in Bécancour, Que. Ford Motor Co. is working with South Korea’s EcoProBM and SK On Co. Ltd. on a C$1.2-billion plant that would produce EV battery materials in that same city.
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