Troubled Thurso-based battery cell developer AMTE Power has announced a conditional subscription agreement to raise £2.5 million at 1.7p per ordinary share from Pinnacle International Venture Capital Ltd, a newly incorporated entity managed by private equity firm Pinnacle International Capital Corp.

Pinnacle has agreed to conditionally subscribe for more than 147 million new ordinary shares and has been granted warrants to the extent that its interest in the enlarged share capital of AMTE would amount to 80%.

The complex agreement with Pinnacle also includes a conditional placing agreement to raise a further £400,000 at 0.5p per ordinary share and a £200,000 convertible loan facility with Pinnacle.

The agreement also revealed it will be the intention of AMTE to cancel the admission of its shares on AIM “and to seek admission of the company’s then issued and to be issued share capital to the standard listing segment (or any successor thereof) of the official list and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market for listed securities, once AMTE Power so qualifies …”

AMTE Power said: “There can be no certainty that even if the subscription agreement is approved by shareholders, that it will complete, in which case it would be likely that AMTE Power would not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due and there would be no alternative other than for the group to enter into administration or some other form of insolvency procedure under which the prospects for recovery of value, if any, by shareholders would be uncertain.”

AMTE went public at £1.75 per share in March 2021 and quickly rose as high as £3.14 — but its shares have since fallen about 99%.

The firm was founded in 2013 and is a developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery cells for specialist markets.

AMTE Power CEO Alan Hollis said: “We are delighted to receive the continued support from both our existing and new shareholders.

“It is also a very positive indication of intent from Pinnacle who are supporting AMTE Power with a CLN to help complete the recapitalisation plan.

“I look forward to making more positive progress as we move towards the successful completion of the Pinnacle investment.”

AMTE Power’s purpose-built cell manufacturing facility in Thurso has the second largest cell manufacturing capacity in the UK and the company also has a product development team based in Oxford.

The company’s proposed gigafactory in Dundee would be capable of producing over eight million battery cells per annum.