Freyr Battery Receives Shareholder Approval For Redomicile to USA
"In our respective new roles as chairman and CEO, we are making changes designed to strengthen and accelerate our ability to implement our vision," wrote chairman Tom Einar Jensen (pictured) and CEO Birger Steen in a letter to Freyr Battery's shareholders. (Archive photo: Trine Jonassen)
Freyr Battery is two steps closer to Giga America - the company's US-based battery factory, as they leave Europe behind.
Norwegian company Freyr Battery announced Tuesday that the company has received the necessary votes to approve all proposals at its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on December 15, 2023. As a result, Freyr expects to complete the previously announced process to redomicile from Luxembourg to the U.S. by the end of this year.
"On behalf of the board and management, the Freyr team expresses its gratitude for the support of the shareholders to pass all the proposals at the extraordinary general meeting. With this vote, Freyr will become a US company by the end of 2023, which will enable us to realize the previously announced benefits for shareholders," commented Tom Einar Jensen, Freyr's Executive Chairperson.
"With Giga America undergoing initial development in Coweta County, Georgia, we are now positioned to establish Freyr as the first US-based scaling partner for battery technology solutions."
Loan application
Frerys' board believes that moving to the US will increase shareholder value in the long term by providing potential strategic opportunities and benefits.
On the same day, the previously based Northen Norway Battery company announces the next step towards Giga America, as the U.S. The Department of Energy (DoE) has invited the company to submit the Part II loan application under the DoE Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program for Freyr's Giga America project in Georgia.
To access the benefits of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act
“This is an important next step in Freyr’s journey to fund our Giga America project,” commented Birger Steen, Freyrs’s Chief Executive Officer, according to the press release.
“With our redomiciliation to the U.S. now approved by our shareholders, Freyr is uniquely positioned to establish the Company as the U.S.-based industrialization partner of choice for clean battery technology solutions and to access the benefits of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act utilizing the U.S.-based 24M Technologies SemiSolidTM platform for the manufacture of utility scale energy storage LFP battery systems", Steen reports.
Key element
The DoE loan application process is a key element of Freyr’s capital formation strategy to fund construction of the Giga America project. Freyr also continues to engage with potential investors in project-level equity to finance the equity component of anticipated capital expenditures and organizational development associated with the project.
The company states that it will continue to work on advancing the DoE Title 17 process during 2024.
It was in november that Freyr announced the plan to cut the costs at their battery venture in Mo i Rana, Northern Norway, in 2024.
Blames US Inflation Reduction Act
The Giga factory had been referred to as potentially one of the largest investments in mainland Norway in recent times.
But Freyr chose to minimize Giga Arctic spending for 2024 due to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
"Norway and Europe have yet to offer a competitive response to the US Inflation Reduction Act or similar incentives from Canada. Accordingly, Freyr plans to minimize spending on the project in 2024, secure the asset with the remaining committed capital spending, and continue to work with stakeholders in Norway and Europe to develop a mutually attractive policy solution," the company said in a statement.
Soon after almost 80 employees got fired from the company.
