by Christina Amann

BERLIN (Reuters) – Northvolt’s largest shareholder Volkswagen has significantly reduced the value of its 21 percent stake in the Swedish battery cell maker as it files for U.S. bankruptcy protection last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Several of Northvolt’s main shareholders have reduced or revised the value of their stakes in the company, which has regularly missed its production targets while an expected boom in demand for electric vehicles has failed to materialize in Europe.

Volkswagen continued to increase the depreciation linked to Northvolt during the financial year, the sources said, without specifying the current value of the stake.

At the end of 2023, Volkswagen said the book value of its stake in the Swedish company was 693 million euros, already down by almost a quarter from the previous year.

This book value fell dramatically over the course of 2024, the sources added on condition of anonymity.

Volkswagen declined to comment and reiterated that it would not make any statement on the impact of Northvolt’s bankruptcy on its balance sheet.

On Saturday, the Financial Times reported that funds managed by Goldman Sachs would take a financial hit of nearly $900 million following the Northvolt bankruptcy.

Swedish pension fund AMF, which is also among Northvolt’s top ten shareholders, said it regularly reviews and adjusts the value of its unlisted stakes, but provided no details when asked what was happening with his stake in Northvolt.

“As everyone can see, the value of Northvolt is considerably lower than it was a year ago,” said an AMF spokesperson.

(Report by Christina Amann with contributions from Marie Mannes and Simon Johnson; written by Christoph Steitz; Noémie Naudin; edited by Blandine Hénault)

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