Tanfield, the electric vehicle and access platform business, has accelerated after news of a new grant for its US associate.
The US department of energy has given Smith Electric Vehicles US an award of $22m towards the production of its electric truck. This is on top of an existing $10m grant announced last August.
Tanfield said the funding would allow Smith Electric to produce more than 500 trucks for a nationwide demonstration programme. The news has lifted Tanfield's shares by 1.25p to 33.25p.
The complicating factor in all this is that Tanfield recently announced that Smith Electric - chaired by Tanfield's former chairman and current non-executive Roy Stanley - wanted to buy Tanfield's UK electric vehicle business for £37m in cash. The deal includes licensing rights and the 49% stake in Smith owned by Tanfield. The company said the offer was worth 50p a share, with another £33m in prospect if Smith floated before 2015.
That would leave Tanfield with just its access platform business, if the deal goes through.
