Lithium-sulphur battery developer Oxis Energy Limited is on the brink of collapse after failing to secure the funding it needed to continue its research.
British accountancy firm BDO has been appointed to wind up the British lithium-sulphur battery specialist firm.
The majority of the Oxford-based company’s 60 staff have been made redundant.
BDO’s business restructuring partners Simon Girling and Chris Marsden have been appointed as insolvency practitioners.
The joint administrators are now in the process of effecting a sale of the company’s specialist testing equipment and 43 patent families.
Indicative offers were originally requested by 28 May, but a BDO spokesman told BEST the deadline had been extended to 9 June “considering the level of interest expressed in the business and its assets”.
Girling said: “The company was unable to secure the investment required to continue its product development.
“However, we are hopeful of obtaining a sale of the company’s specialist testing equipment, together with approximately 200 patents held by the company, and the opportunity remains for an acquirer to purchase these assets in situ at an internationally acclaimed testing centre, and separate R&D facility.”
In January, Oxis told BEST it was expecting to close a “significant capital injection” following news it had “suspended operations”, which included putting a halt on its $5 million, ten-year contract with Yachts de Luxe (YdL) of Singapore.
The company blamed COVID-19 for the halt in operations, with Oxis saying at the time it was working with its board of directors on accessing short-term funding while it waited for investment funds— signed last year— to be received.
In April the concerns seemed to have been allayed when Oxis announced it would deploy its solid-state lithium-sulfur cell and battery systems for use in trials, proof-of-concept and demonstrator systems this Autumn.
Oxis’ 44 patent families include 214 patents and 106 pending that cover electrolyte systems for lithium-sulphur cells, methods of cell construction and electrodes.
