One of the UK's leading electric car charging companies, Pod Point, has been sold to French energy giant EDF, for just £10.6million, amid a "slow" adoption of EVs.
Pod Point operates a network of more than 250,000 charging points across the UK and is attempting to pivot from selling charging hardware to offering EV charging as a subscription service.
Experts highlight how the sale is a dramatic fall from its £350million valuation when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.
The deal values Pod Point shares at 6.5p each, representing a collapse of more than 97 per cent from its initial public offering price of 225p per share.
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Pod Point has been sold for just £10.6million, despite once being valued at £350million
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According to the Financial Times, shares of Pod Point reached 275p at their peak.
Pod Point suspended its shares in May following a turbulent period that included a profit warning in January and the discovery of £4.4million in "bad debts" dating from 2020 to 2024.
The company's share price plummeted nearly 40 per cent in January after the profit warning, then fell another 25 per cent in mid-April when the bad debts were revealed.
Pod Point reported that it does not expect to recover these debts in the near future.
EDF Energy previously owned a 53 per cent stake in Pod Point
GETTYThe charging hardware company has blamed "stiff competition and a slower than expected adoption of EVs" for its difficulties.
It reported a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £20.7million last year, significantly worse than analysts' expectations of a £14million loss.
EDF, which already holds a 53 per cent stake in Pod Point, said the company had been "consistently cash flow negative throughout its history".
It added that it was reliant on the French state utility for "grant funding and financial support... to execute its business strategy to date".
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The energy giant warned that an independent Pod Point would require "substantial" new financing to avoid a liquidity crunch, "which would be highly challenging to obtain, given current market conditions".
EDF described the takeover as the "only realistic prospect" of allowing Pod Point to continue operating, saying the acquisition would provide "long-term stability" and enable investment in charging products.
Pod Point announced that it had "evolved" and rebranded simply to Pod when it launched its new subscription model just a few weeks ago.
The new all-inclusive EV home charging subscription promises to save drivers more than £1,000 in upfront costs.
More than 14.3 million charging sessions have taken place at Tesco's Pod chargers since 2019 PODPod has also extended its partnership with Tesco, allowing motorists to collect Clubcard points by charging their vehicles while doing their routine shop.
For every pound spent at Pod's Vauxhall-branded chargers at Tesco stores around the country, drivers can earn 2,500 Clubcard points.
This applies to new motorists who sign up for the Pod Drive home charging scheme as a new customer. The points can also be converted to spend at partner retailers.
Pod operates more than 2,600 Vauxhall-branded electric car charging bays at over 600 different Tesco supermarkets across the UK.
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