How a Hot Norwegian Battery Start-Up Beat the SPAC Deep Freeze

Stocks associated with special purpose acquisition companies crashed in 2022—with an exception:


Freyr Battery


The shares are up some 34%, year to date, despite stumbling this past Monday after releasing earnings. The stock’s rise, in fact, has accelerated; it’s up 5% in the past month, and 80% over six months.

The Norwegian start-up had a third-quarter loss of 80 cents per share; Wall Street was expecting 30 cents. Most of that loss, however, was an adjustment in stock-warrant valuation that depends on factors including share price. Freyr went public in July 2021 through a SPAC merger and aims to make rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. It has no sales and is still validating technology and building battery capacity. The company ended the quarter with $420 million in cash, after burning through roughly $145 million this year.