One of the UK’s leading electric vehicle infrastructure companies is in talks to secure a significant new round of funding from a subsidiary of M&G, asset management firm FTSE-100.
Sky News has learned that Gridsserve is in advanced discussions with Infracapital about a deal that will give them significant firepower to accelerate the rollout of EV charging facilities in the UK and abroad.
The size of the potential funding, and the valuation it is being raised at, were not clear on Thursday.
Gridsserve counts Hitachi, the Japanese industrial conglomerate, and Sir Richard Branson’s Rise fund among its existing backers.
It owns the Electric Highway charging network on UK motorways, having bought off the remainder of the interest in it last year from Ecotricity.
City sources say that Gridsserve explored the possibility of a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) before weakening the environment for such transactions.
Those people said that context prompted it to raise money from private investors.
Over the past year, Pod Point, the EV charging consortium, has floated in London, while EO Charging, another British company, has abandoned plans to merge with a US-listed SPAC and is expected to secure new capital from investors in the short term.
A Gridserve spokesperson declined to comment on negotiations with M&G or provide any other information about the company.
M&G also declined to comment.
