Czech company Sev.en Global Investments has bought the coal-fired asset which has an expected closure date of 2029 but now appears likely to be extended amid an east coast energy shortfall.

Sev.en, which has revenue of €1.3 billion, has a stake in the Millmerran and Callide power stations, in Queensland. In 2019, it bought a 50 per cent stake in InterGen, which has assets in the UK and Australia, including the two Queensland power stations.

St Baker told The Australian he expected the new owners would extend the life of the power station and that he would redirect the funds into Tritium, a Brisbane based technology company that makes fast charging equipment for electric vehicle batteries.

St Baker is a director and shareholder in Tritium, which is listed on the north American Nasdaq.

He also recently invested $5 million into AMSL Aero, a Sydney company developing vertical take-off and landing vehicles and in 2019 he sold his company ERM Power to Shell for $600 million.

Trevor St Baker has turned an original $1m investment into a $200m deal.

In 2015 St Baker’s Delta Electricity bought the Vales Point coal-fired power station, on the shores of Lake Macquarie in NSW, for $1 million. Nobody else wanted it – and with good reason. Its 1970s commissioned generators were destined for the scrap heap. Or so everyone thought.

A few years later, the ABC reported Vales Point was revalued in the Delta Electricity books at $730 million after wholesale electricity prices surged. St Baker wants the asset to keep going until 2029 at least.

On top of that, Vales Point power station received an $8.7 million grant from the Federal Government for upgrades.

In the 2019 financial year, Vales Point made a $96 million net profit on about $600 million in revenue. An annual dividend of $30m was paid.