Lithium-ion battery recycler Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. said that Koch Strategic Platforms will make a $100 million investment through a convertible note. Proceeds will support the company’s growth in North America, Europe, and Asia.
In addition to the new capital, Li-Cycle and several Koch Industries business units are exploring ways to speed up Li-Cycle’s global growth efforts. This includes potentially working with Koch Engineered Solutions, which provides engineering, procurement, and construction services; as well as the Optimized Process Designs group, which provides engineering packages, single-point procurement for equipment and materials, fabrication, and construction services.
Among the growth drivers are battery mega-factory announcements that have exceeded original expectations. The company said this drives additional battery manufacturing scrap available for recycling.
Under terms of the investment, Koch will buy a convertible note in the aggregate principal amount of $100 million. The note will have an initial conversion price of around $13.43 per Li-Cycle common share. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as “LICY.” Li-Cycle will settle its conversion obligations by delivering shares of its common stock.
The note matures on Sept. 29, 2026 and interest will be payable semi-annually. Interest payments made in cash will be based on an interest rate of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 5.0% per year. Payment in kind (PIK) interest payments will be based on an interest rate of LIBOR plus 6.0% per year. LIBOR is specified to have a floor of 1.0% and a cap of 2.0%.
Hub and spoke
In June, Li-Cycle announced a partnership with Renewance, a life-cycle battery management company. The two had collaborated on energy storage projects since early 2020.
Li-Cycle also recently announced plans to build a third North American “spoke” plant in the Phoenix area, becoming the first such plant west of the Mississippi. The facility will produce black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries. This material is then sent to a “hub” facility, a wet chemistry/hydrometallurgical plant, that will refine battery-grade materials. The company’s first hub is set to be operational in 2022 in Rochester, New York.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.