© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: View shows the site where the gigafactory for electric vehicle battery production by Volkswagen Group’s battery company PowerCo SE will be built in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada April 21, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen said it was sticking to its financing timeline for battery unit PowerCo to seek a strategic investor this year, after Bloomberg reported that it was pushing back its plans.
“The interest we see from investors remains high,” Volkswagen (ETR:) said in a statement.
Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday that the company was no longer prioritising a stake sale, or a potential listing this year or next, citing people familiar with the matter, who attributed the delay to a poor market for listings.
Volkswagen said the company was still preparing to be ready for an investor in 2024 and that an IPO remained a “tangible option in the future.”
A spokesperson for PowerCo also denied that timings had changed.
Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz first said in September 2022 that PowerCo could be the next unit of the Volkswagen Group to be split off after the listing of Porsche, first via engaging strategic investors and then potentially a listing, but without providing a timeline.
Both Antlitz and Volkswagen’s battery chief Thomas Schmall said in 2023 that the unit would be ready for an investor in 2024, with Schmall adding it would be ready in the beginning of the year.
A listing could not take place until battery factories were up and running, a source familiar with the matter said.
PowerCo is scheduled to begin producing cells from 2025.
Antlitz said in September last year that the strategic investor could be a major client and that down the line, there could be several investors.
Other options for partners could include a financial investor or someone with know-how of the battery industry, he added at the time.
