--- title: "Northvolt Drei and the German holding companies" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/northvolt/germany/northvolt-drei/ as_of: 2026-10-13 keywords: ["Northvolt AB","Northvolt Ett","Northvolt Drei","Northvolt Six","Northvolt Dwa","Lyten","Volkswagen","Goldman Sachs Asset Management","KfW convertible bond","Chapter 11","Swedish bankruptcy","Mikael Kubu","StaRUG","CCAA","Investissement Québec","Schleswig-Holstein","Skellefteå","Heide","Scania","battery cells"] --- # Northvolt Drei and the German holding companies **Question.** Which German companies carried the Heide project, who ran them, and what has happened to them since Northvolt AB's insolvency? **Answer.** Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, formerly Northvolt Germany GmbH, is linked to Northvolt AB through Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH and Northvolt Drei HoldCo GmbH in register data reproduced by a business-information service, and the state audit office and the register date its founding differently. According to Schleswig-Holstein's economics minister, a StaRUG restructuring plan was finally confirmed by the Hamburg courts and a solvent liquidation financed by KfW followed; Noerr reports that €222 million of unspent convertible funds are being returned to KfW for the federation and the state. The company's shares are held by the trust company LG Batterie GmbH, and in July 2026 Lyten announced an exclusive MoU to acquire the Heide assets at an undisclosed price that media reported at about €60 million; media later reported the deal delayed. ## The project company - Analysis: German commercial register records reproduced by a business-information service list Northvolt Drei Project GmbH under Amtsgericht Pinneberg HRB 18602 PI, with its address at Oeverwisch 2, 25746 Norderwöhrden. Its former names were Northvolt Germany GmbH and Blitz 19-349 GmbH, and its former registrations Amtsgericht München HRB 253048 and Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 177896. Its registered purpose is the production of lithium-ion batteries, including the development, construction, maintenance and operation of a battery cell production facility and the holding of the associated land. According to the register publications reproduced by the same service, the company was registered on 27 November 2019 as the shelf company Blitz 19-349 GmbH, with a share capital of €25,000 and Katja Gogalla and Randi Mette Selnes as managing directors. A publication of 8 December 2020 records the new name Northvolt Germany GmbH and Christofer Haux as managing director in place of Gogalla and Selnes. Later publications record a new registration together with a change of headquarters on 7 November 2022 and the seat Hamburg on 20 December 2022, the name Northvolt Drei Project GmbH on 11 January 2024, and a registration with a change of headquarters to Norderwöhrden on 21 and 26 November 2024. [src-024] - Analysis: The records do not agree on when the company was founded. The state audit office's special report describes Northvolt Drei Project GmbH as founded ('gegründet') in November 2022 as Northvolt Germany GmbH with its seat in Hamburg, and renamed in January 2024 with its seat in Norderwöhrden. The register history instead dates its first registration to 27 November 2019, under an earlier Munich number (HRB 253048), and shows November 2022 as a new registration together with a change of headquarters, followed by the seat Hamburg in a publication of 20 December 2022. Neither record explains the difference; the renaming in January 2024 agrees in both. Register publications of 21 and 26 November 2024 then record a registration with a change of headquarters to Norderwöhrden; the company is now registered with Amtsgericht Pinneberg under HRB 18602 PI. [src-096] [src-024] ## TopCo and HoldCo - Analysis: Two holding companies were formed from shelf companies registered on the same day. German commercial register records reproduced by a business-information service list Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH under Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 178044, formerly Blitz H22-1041 GmbH, and Northvolt Drei HoldCo GmbH under Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 178034, formerly Blitz H22-1042 GmbH, both at Vorsetzen 50, 20459 Hamburg (previously Munich). TopCo's registered purpose is holding and managing investments in companies active in the research, development, production, recycling and disposal of batteries such as lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, battery modules and energy storage systems; HoldCo's covers the same activities for batteries, in particular lithium-ion batteries and battery modules. Both were registered on 15 November 2022 with a share capital of €25,000 and Katja Gogalla and Randi Mette Selnes as managing directors. Publications of 10 February 2023 (TopCo) and 14 February 2023 (HoldCo) record the new names and Lars Christofer Haux as managing director in their place, and publications of 31 March 2023 a share capital of €25,001 for each, for HoldCo together with a shareholder agreement; a HoldCo publication of 11 January 2024 records a new shareholder agreement. Publications of 11 September 2025 (TopCo) and 8 October 2025 (HoldCo) record Christoph von Wilcken as managing director, with Haux no longer managing director. [src-046] [src-066] - Analysis: The network graph of a business-information service reproducing German register data shows a current 100% link between Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH and Northvolt AB, a current 100% link between TopCo and Northvolt Drei HoldCo GmbH, a 100% link between HoldCo and Northvolt Drei Project GmbH labelled '2025' and marked historical, and a 100% link between Northvolt Drei Project GmbH and Northvolt AB labelled '2020' and marked historical. These are aggregator graph edges: the service states that the visual endpoints do not verify the legal direction of the links, and no shareholder list was inspected. A chain from Northvolt AB through TopCo and HoldCo to Northvolt Drei Project GmbH is consistent with the debtors' Chapter 11 declaration, which says Northvolt AB provided the KfW instrument to Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH as an equity injection for the Heide gigafactory. The same service's graph for Northvolt Drei Project GmbH now shows a current 100% link with LG Batterie GmbH, which Schleswig-Holstein's state government described on 1 July 2026 as the project company's trust company. [src-046] [src-024] [src-074] ## Managing directors, staff and lobbying - Analysis: Commercial register publications reproduced by a business-information service record Christofer Haux as managing director of Northvolt Germany GmbH, now Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, from a publication of 8 December 2020, and a publication of 10 November 2025 records that Haux was no longer managing director. At the joint session of the Landtag's economic and finance committees on 15 October 2025, Schleswig-Holstein's economics minister Claus Ruhe Madsen said that the management of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH had confirmed on 13 October 2025 that Dr. Christoph von Wilcken had been sole managing director of Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH and Northvolt Drei HoldCo GmbH since 3 August 2025, replacing Haux, in line with the commercial register extract; the register publications are dated 11 September 2025 for TopCo and 8 October 2025 for HoldCo, and 3 August 2025 is the start date given by the company's management through the minister. The minister added that the federal economics ministry had told the state government some weeks earlier that Haux wished to leave the post, and that appointing a lawyer experienced in restructuring appeared understandable in the situation. A register publication of 27 October 2025 records Thomas Hoffmann and Nicolas Steinbacher as managing directors of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, with Steinbacher no longer an authorised signatory (Prokurist), and the service's network graph shows Daniel Elschner as Prokurist. The Bundestag lobby register entry for the company, last changed on 13 January 2026, likewise names Nicolas Steinbacher and Dr. Thomas Hoffmann as managing directors (Geschäftsführer) authorised to represent it. [src-024] [src-066] [src-067] [src-046] [src-077] - Analysis: A battery-industry conference speaker profile states that Nicolas Steinbacher has worked for Northvolt since July 2020, was one of the first employees of Northvolt Germany and, as Program Lead, is responsible for setting up the Northvolt Drei battery cell factory near Heide, having previously worked as a senior consultant at Porsche Consulting. These are self-described career details rather than a register record; the commercial register records Steinbacher as Prokurist of the company from 11 January 2024 and as managing director from 27 October 2025, and the Bundestag lobby register entry for the company, last changed on 13 January 2026, also names Steinbacher as managing director. A regional public-broadcaster news report of 17 October 2024 says that Daniel Elschner was introduced to visitors at a Northvolt event as plant director (Werksleiter) for the planned plant in Dithmarschen (Heide), and that Elschner had worked for the automotive supplier ZF for twelve years, joined Northvolt in 2023 and belonged to the plant management of its first battery factory in northern Sweden. Those career details are as reported by the media; the register graph separately shows Elschner as Prokurist of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH without a start date. [src-122] [src-024] [src-123] - Analysis: Northvolt Drei Project GmbH is entered in the Bundestag lobby register under R005421, with a first entry of 3 November 2022, a last change on 13 January 2026 and a last annual update on 30 June 2025, marked as not updated, and an address at Vorsetzen 50, 20459 Hamburg. For the 2024 financial year it reported lobbying expenditure of €40,001 to €50,000, 0.31 full-time equivalents and, as main funding sources, economic activity, public grants and other sources; five persons are named as conducting lobbying directly, including Patrick Keinprecht, Nicolas Steinbacher and Dr. Thomas Hoffmann. For the same year the company reports a grant from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of €20,001 to €30,000 for setting up a qualification centre for battery specialists in Schleswig-Holstein, intended to train up to 900 specialists a year from 2026 with five partners including Northvolt and CustomCells, with VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH as project sponsor. [src-077] ## StaRUG restructuring and solvent liquidation - Analysis: On 15 October 2025 the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag's economic and finance committees held a joint session on the use of the remaining funds from the Northvolt convertible bond, on the basis of confidential papers of the economics ministry (Umdrucke 20/5382 and 20/5390). The discussion referred to a KPMG report in a draft of 29 August 2025, a KfW internal assessment of options of 16 September 2025, and the law firms White & Case, adviser to the state, and Hengeler Mueller, lawyers of KfW and the federation; after a public part, the committees continued in confidential session. At the session economics minister Madsen said the state government had no current information on the StaRUG restructuring proceedings (under the German Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring Framework for Businesses) of Northvolt Germany TopCo GmbH, that there was currently no movement in them, that it could not assess their effect on the Swedish insolvency proceedings of Northvolt AB, and that it assumed they would not affect the announced takeover of the German Northvolt activities by Lyten. The minutes name neither the court nor a case number; later records, the minister's letter Umdruck 20/6525, Noerr's release and a legal trade publication, refer to a StaRUG restructuring plan for Northvolt Drei, and none of them states how the two relate. [src-067] [src-084] - Analysis: A press release of the law firm Noerr dated 14 April 2026 names Dr. Thomas Hoffmann (partner, Frankfurt) as leading the Noerr restructuring team that advised the German Northvolt companies, Hengeler Mueller as adviser to KfW and Stefan Denkhaus (BRL) as restructuring officer (Restrukturierungsbeauftragter). The release states that the German Northvolt project company in Heide went through StaRUG restructuring proceedings, which secured its solvent liquidation and the satisfaction of all creditors of the project company, so that it escaped the insolvency of the Northvolt group, and that its assets were to be transferred to an investor in the solvent liquidation. That is the statement of the law firm that advised the project company; no creditor list or court record of the payments was inspected. [src-113] - Analysis: In a letter to the Landtag's economic committee (Umdruck 20/6525, May 2026), economics minister Claus Ruhe Madsen stated that the restructuring plan for Northvolt Drei and the measures in it had been finally confirmed by the Amtsgericht Hamburg as restructuring court and by the Landgericht Hamburg, and that no further appeal against the plan was possible. The solvent liquidation of Northvolt Drei, financed by KfW from the funds on the designated account, had allowed the substantial surplus funds on that account to be returned promptly to the federal and state budgets after the StaRUG confirmation; through the solvent liquidation, the letter adds, KfW as majority creditor (Mehrheitsgläubigerin) has substantial influence on the further course of Northvolt Drei, and investors can be sought in parallel with the involvement of the federation and the state. The letter gives no figures. According to Noerr's release and a legal trade publication, unconsumed funds of €222 million from the KfW convertible are being returned to KfW by the German project company in the solvent liquidation, with the money due half each to the federation and Schleswig-Holstein: €153 million had already been repaid and the remaining €69 million were to follow, by summer 2026 according to Noerr, which advised the project company. The trade publication adds, citing media reports, that the federal economics ministry said the restructuring plan had been confirmed at last instance. The records reviewed do not show whether the remaining €69 million was paid. [src-084] [src-072] [src-113] - Analysis: The choice of a solvent liquidation was questioned in the economic committee. According to the minister's letter, Landtag member Dr. Bernd Buchholz argued there on 15 April 2026, citing a decision of the Landgericht Hamburg of 18 December 2025 (case 326 T 62/25), that an insolvency of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH would have been preferable to a solvent liquidation, because the court had regarded a right to separate satisfaction (Absonderungsrecht) over the designated account as existing in insolvency as well. The minister replied that the passage contains the court's remark that it did not follow the complainant's argument, that the decision would not bind an insolvency administrator, and that the solvent liquidation, including a liquidation-cost loan, settled the question as a kind of overall settlement; the letter adds that the risks of an insolvency, in particular as to the right to separate satisfaction, had been judged higher ex ante than its chances. The court decision itself was not inspected and the letter does not name the complainant; the description of the decision comes from the minister's letter and the member's argument as summarised there. [src-084] ## Trust holding by LG Batterie GmbH - Analysis: German commercial register records reproduced by a business-information service list LG Batterie GmbH under Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main HRB 142948, formerly FUW Projekt 20 GmbH (Amtsgericht Stendal HRB 36728, Halle (Saale)), with the address c/o TEAM TREUHAND GmbH, Börsenstr. 1, Frankfurt am Main. Its registered purpose is holding and managing its own and third-party assets, in particular the fiduciary holding and management of the business shares in Northvolt Drei Project GmbH (Pinneberg HRB 18602 PI) until the completion of its solvent liquidation. The company was registered as FUW Projekt 20 GmbH on 24 November 2025. A publication of 9 March 2026 records Thomas Hoffmann as managing director and the departure of three earlier managing directors; a registration of 29 April 2026 records a change of headquarters and the name LG Batterie GmbH, listing the managing director by the initials 'Th. H.', and a publication of 18 May 2026 the seat Frankfurt. The same service's network graph shows Thomas Hoffmann as managing director of Team Treuhand GmbH (Munich, HRB 152237), at whose address LG Batterie GmbH is registered; the register publication of Team Treuhand GmbH's registration on 29 April 2004 lists its managing directors only by initials, so the link to Thomas Hoffmann is the service's attribution. [src-085] [src-094] - Analysis: Schleswig-Holstein's state government said in a release of 1 July 2026 that LG Batterie GmbH is the trust company (Treuhandgesellschaft) of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, and that Northvolt Drei Project GmbH was originally owned by the now insolvent Swedish parent company Northvolt AB. The business-information service's network graph shows a current 100% link between Northvolt Drei Project GmbH and LG Batterie GmbH, while the 100% link with Northvolt Drei HoldCo GmbH is labelled '2025' and marked historical; register publications for Northvolt Drei Project GmbH of 17 March 2026 (share capital €25,000 and a shareholder agreement) and 27 March 2026 (a list of shareholders) follow. The service does not verify the direction of graph links and no shareholder list was inspected; the trust role is stated by the government release and LG Batterie's registered purpose, and Lyten's release calls LG Batterie GmbH the shareholder of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH. Media reported on 30 June 2026, citing a German news magazine, that the federal economics ministry had Northvolt Drei Project GmbH nationalised out of public view, so that LG Batterie GmbH and a further intermediate company have since held all its shares in trust for the federation; the reported background was a decision of a Hamburg local court (Amtsgericht) on remaining subsidy funds of up to €264 million, which the step was meant to secure. No inspected official record confirms this report: the state government's release does not name the beneficiary of the trust, and the court decision referred to was not inspected. What the records do show is that LG Batterie GmbH, registered as FUW Projekt 20 GmbH on 24 November 2025, has as its registered purpose the fiduciary holding of the shares in Northvolt Drei Project GmbH until the completion of its solvent liquidation, and that Lyten's memorandum of understanding of 1 July 2026 was signed by LG Batterie GmbH as shareholder. [src-042] [src-024] [src-087] ## The machine bought from Northvolt AB - Analysis: In its answer to a minor interpellation by Landtag member Dr. Bernd Buchholz (Drucksache 20/4634 of 22 July 2026), the Schleswig-Holstein government confirmed that Northvolt Drei Project GmbH bought a machine intended for use at the Heide site once the battery cell factory was completed. The state was not involved at the time of purchase; the required consent was given by the federation and KfW in line with their contractual responsibilities, and the state was informed afterwards. The interpellation's preliminary remark, citing media reports, states that the company bought the machine in 2024 from its Swedish parent Northvolt AB for €51 million from convertible-bond funds, and that the machine remained in Sweden and was leased back by a Northvolt company there. The government neither confirmed nor denied the price, the location or the lease-back: it said media publications did not lift its duty of confidentiality, which it considered particularly important given the ongoing negotiations with Lyten, cited the protection of business secrets under Article 29(3) of the state constitution, and said the committees had been briefed confidentially on 30 June 2026 and through a confidential paper of 20 July 2026. Neither the federation, the state nor KfW had a contractual relationship with Northvolt AB or Northvolt Labs AB concerning the machine, the answer states, so there was no basis for them to file a direct claim in the claims procedure (bevakningsförfarande) that, according to the question, the Stockholm District Court opened on 13 June 2026; the management of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH would file the company's direct claims against Northvolt AB and Northvolt Labs AB relating to the machine. [src-086] ## The proposed sale to Lyten - Analysis: Lyten had announced on 7 August 2025 binding agreements to acquire Northvolt's remaining assets in Sweden and Germany: Northvolt Ett and Ett Expansion in Skellefteå, Northvolt Labs in Västerås and Northvolt Drei in Heide; it announced completion of the Swedish part in February 2026, later giving 27 February 2026 as the closing date. In its answer of 20 March 2026 (Drucksache 21/4927) the federal government stated that a sale process of Northvolt AB in Sweden to an investor was under way, that the sale process for Northvolt Drei Project GmbH in Heide was continuing, and that its priority was to recover liquid funds from the convertible bond. On 1 July 2026 Lyten announced an exclusive memorandum of understanding (MoU) to progress the acquisition of the Northvolt Drei assets near Heide, signed by Lyten, KfW, Northvolt Drei Project GmbH and its shareholder LG Batterie GmbH. Lyten's release says Northvolt Drei was formerly owned by Northvolt AB and was an under-construction gigafactory development on a 110-hectare site with completed groundwork and power and utility infrastructure; that Lyten would fund the costs of maintaining and preserving the assets, including employee expenses, upon signing of the MoU and an exclusivity agreement with the State of Schleswig-Holstein; and that the parties were working towards a definitive sales agreement in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory and closing conditions. The terms were not disclosed. [src-035] [src-092] [src-100] [src-034] [src-086] - Analysis: Schleswig-Holstein's state government said on 1 July 2026 that the state is not a party to the legally non-binding MoU or to the subsequent purchase contracts with Lyten but benefits economically together with the federation: the purchase price would flow to the federation and the state in equal halves via KfW at a later date in the liquidation of Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, which is why their consent to the sale was required, and confidentiality on the details had been agreed with Lyten. The price has not been officially disclosed. Lyten, announcing its exclusive memorandum of understanding on 1 July 2026 with a definitive sales agreement targeted for the third quarter of 2026, said that the terms were not being released by Lyten or any party related to the transaction. Media reported in June 2026, citing a German news magazine, that Lyten had agreed with KfW and the federal and Schleswig-Holstein governments on a takeover price of about €60 million for the former Northvolt site in Heide and technical equipment already procured; according to the magazine the price was far below the acquisition costs of the assets, put at about €50 million for the land, about €260 million for construction and €51 million for a battery production machine, leaving a difference of over €300 million to be borne by the federation and the state. The magazine reportedly received no comment from the federal economics ministry on whether this amounted to indirect support for Lyten. Media reported on 1 October 2026 that the takeover was delayed: a Lyten executive was quoted, via a news agency, as saying that negotiations and work on the final purchase agreement were far advanced and in the last phase but that more time was needed for remaining legal and commercial details, while the sale had been expected in the third quarter of 2026. No signed final agreement was found in the records. [src-042] [src-087] ## Sources - [src-024] Corporate registry source · src-024 - [src-096] Umdruck 20/6536: special report of the state audit office on the state guarantee for the Northvolt AB convertible bond, Landesrechnungshof Schleswig-Holstein (transmitted to the Landtag), 2026-05-11 - [src-046] Corporate registry source · src-046 - [src-066] Corporate registry source · src-066 - [src-074] Court record source · src-074 - [src-067] Minutes of the joint session of the Economic and Digital Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee of 15 October 2025, Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag, 2025-10-15 - [src-077] Lobby register entry R005421: Northvolt Drei Project GmbH, Deutscher Bundestag (Lobbyregister), 2026-01-13 - [src-122] Other source · src-122 - [src-123] Media source · src-123 - [src-084] Umdruck 20/6525: letter of the Schleswig-Holstein Minister for Economic Affairs on the Northvolt Drei restructuring, Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag, 2026-05 - [src-113] Company statement source · src-113 - [src-072] Media source · src-072 - [src-085] Corporate registry source · src-085 - [src-094] Corporate registry source · src-094 - [src-042] Press release of the State Chancellery: State paves the way for the takeover of the Northvolt Drei project company by US investor Lyten, State Government of Schleswig-Holstein (Staatskanzlei), 2026-06-30 - [src-087] Media source · src-087 - [src-086] Drucksache 20/4634: minor interpellation by Dr. Bernd Buchholz (FDP) and answer of the state government, Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag, 2026-07-22 - [src-035] Company statement source · src-035 - [src-092] Company statement source · src-092 - [src-100] Drucksache 21/4927: answer of the Federal Government to minor interpellation 21/4366 on the Northvolt convertible bond, Deutscher Bundestag, 2026-03-20 - [src-034] Company statement source · src-034