A Quebec Superior Court judge has declared the North American branch of battery manufacturer Northvolt insolvent as the provincial government seeks to recover $260 million owed to it.
Justice Janet Michelin on Friday placed Northvolt Batteries North America under creditor protection following a request earlier in the week from the province.
Northvolt laid off its entire workforce on Thursday, a day after Economy Minister Christine Fréchette announced the government would provide no more funding for the company’s planned electric-vehicle battery plant on Montreal’s South Shore.
The court decision will allow the company to rehire about 15 employees to maintain the site where the factory was to be built.
The province lost a $270-million investment in Northvolt’s Swedish parent company when it declared bankruptcy in the spring.
The government subsequently signed an agreement with the North American subsidiary to give it time to find new buyers or investors. But Quebec says Northvolt received no binding offers by a Sept. 1 deadline and decided to pull the plug on the project.
It’s now trying to recover a $240-million loan issued to Northvolt in 2023 to allow it to purchase the land for the plant. It says the debt is now worth $260 million with interest.
On Friday, Fréchette’s office confirmed that the province has already recuperated nearly $200 million from Northvolt bank accounts frozen after the Swedish parent declared bankruptcy in March. That means Quebec is still about $60 million shy of that monetary goal.
The project was once considered the largest private investment in the province’s history, but it never got beyond the planning stages.
The Legault government also wants to get its hands on that large piece of land, which is located both in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville — east of Montreal.
”We have guarantees to recuperate sums invested in the purchase of Northvolt’s land,” Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette wrote on X. ”We have exercised those guarantees and have recuperated, for now, nearly $200 million from our loan. Other sums will be added to that total.”