Germany’s BMW has signed a deal that paves the way for it to acquire a stake in Chinese lithium battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
BMW Brilliance, the German carmaker’s Chinese joint venture, will be entitled to purchase up to CNY2.85 billion (US$430 million) if CATL sells new shares.
The deal— which analysts estimate would give BMW a stake of 0.8% at the current stock price— comes just weeks after CATL said it would invest €240m (US$280m) to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Germany to supply BMW and other car firms.
BMW Brilliance will also spend around CNY815m on purchasing a “battery capacity construction project” from CATL, the Chinese side confirmed— but gave no other details.
In addition, CATL said it would receive a CNY2.85bn pre-payment on a long-term contract for the supply of lithium-ion automotive batteries to BMW Brilliance.
Separately, CATL and Guangzhou-headquartered GAC Group will invest CNY1.1bn to set up two joint ventures for R&D aimed at producing lithium-ion batteries, automotive batteries and large storage capacity battery technology in China.
