‘We’ve proved it’: Battery triumph to lead to float of Li-S Energy
PPK and Deakin University are likely to spin off their battery joint venture, Li-S Energy, within two months after proving the viability of their lithium-sulphur battery.
Brisbane will get another battery materials producer through the IPO
PPK Executive chairman Robin Levison said Li-S Energy has already had one round of fundraising earlier this year when it drew in $20 million from investors in a pre-IPO, which gave it a valuation of $300 million.
“I would not want to pre-judge what the initial public offering might look like, but we are big step ahead of when we raised the $20 million and the $300 million valuation because we have effectively proved the science works and we can build batteries that are three times better than anything else out there,’’ Levison said.
We have started reaching out to the end users of the technology to either trial batteries we have made or talk about how they might use the technology in a royalty opportunity.
“We are considering what batteries could be manufactured in Australia competitively compared with something like Tesla’s Gigafactory in the US.
“Really, up to now it’s been about perfecting the science and the verification and now it’s about getting the product to the market.
“It’s really now going to come down to the technology being recognised as superior, globally, and those people who want to be involved in using it how they end up using.”
A test plant will be built at Deakin using Federal Government funding and money from the IPO.
Levison said there were multiple uses for the product from electric vehicles to drones and mobile phones.
“We have done preliminary discussions with end users and historically their comments to us have been “well, prove it’ and we have proved it,” he said.
“When we have looked at other historical technology improvements we have found they all take time. We don’t expect this is going to happen tomorrow but it’s also why we are going to IPO Li-S because it will need capital to get out there and show its wares and we need to complete the construction of the test battery plant.”
PPK and Deakin believe the battery would give enough energy for a car to be driven for 1000 km without recharging, more than double the current standard. Phones were likely to last a week without recharging.
