A battery recycling company that the Biden administration urged to apply for a $375 million green energy loan in November warned investors this week that it’s at risk of going out of business.
Li-Cycle Holdings’s annual report filed with the SEC on Monday states that it has “incurred significant losses since inception” and that there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating.
The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office finalized the loan for Li-Cycle just two days after former president Joe Biden lost the November election. It was part of a flurry of last-minute loan approvals, totaling over $20 billion, issued by the Biden loan office in the final weeks of the administration.
Li-Cycle’s CEO Ajay Kochhar has said he was initially reluctant to apply for the loan due to concerns about whether his company, which has struggled financially, would be able to repay the government. But Biden’s green energy loan czar, Jigar Shah, urged him to barrel forward. “Get your ass to Pittsburgh,” Shah told Kochhar in September 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal. There, the two men met for coffee and moved forward on the deal.
Li-Cycle is one of several DOE loan recipients facing financial turmoil, reflecting viability issues that have plagued the Biden administration’s signature green energy loan program.