Coda Holdings, a US-based electric vehicle and battery system developer backed by Asian corporations, has entered bankruptcy as part of a sale process and plan to focus on stationary energy storage.
Alternative investments firm Fortress Investment Group through an affiliate is leading a consortium of lenders intending to provide debtor-in-possession financing to enable Coda’s energy storage business to remain fully operational during the restructuring process and that it would be the “stalking horse bidder in the sale process to acquire the company post-bankruptcy”.
The automotive assets will be sold leaving Coda Energy as the remaining business after the company diversified two years ago through the acquisition of EnergyCS and joint venture with Chinese battery cell maker Tianjin Lishen to move into storage.
Law firm White & Case is counsel for Coda, with Emerald Capital Advisors as its restructuring adviser and Houlihan Lokey as investment bank for the restructuring. Sidley Austin is legal adviser to the consortium of lenders.
In February last year, Coda raised $23m as the start of a new round. In September 2011, Coda closed a $147m round of series D funding, led by New World Strategic Investment, the corporate venturing unit of Hong Kong-based multi-industry conglomerate New World Development.
Also participating in the round, which was oversubscribed from its $125m target, were investment firms Indus Capital and Harbinger Capital, private equity firms Riverstone Holdings, Aeris Capital and Angeleno Group, asset management group Och-Ziff, and various angel investors.
Coda’s prior series D financing raised $76m in January and $30m in August, with the final part of the funding being $41m. Coda’s series C round closed in May 2010 at $58m, with investors including Aeris, Angeleno, investment entity Countryline, and EDB Investments, the investment unit funded by Singapore’s Economic Development Board. Coda raised $24m in series B funding, in July 2009.
The equity came in addition to a $294m line of credit with the Bank of Tianjin Joint-Stock Co. and $100m in capital from undisclosed sources, raised in conjunction with Lishen Power Battery for the purpose of setting up battery manufacturing facilities, in March 2010.