Reliance New Energy buys Lithium Werks shares

The acquisition, worth US$61m, covers its patent portfolio, and manufacturing facility in China.

Reliance New Energy Limited has signed an agreement acquiring “substantially all shares” of Lithium Werks BV for US$61m.

The transaction will cover Lithium Werks’ patent portfolio, manufacturing facility in China, key business contracts as well as hiring of existing employees. It is expected to be completed by June 2022.

“Lithium Werks is one of the leading lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell manufacturing companies globally and has a vast patent portfolio and a management team which brings tremendous experience of innovation across LFP value chain,” Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, said.

“Along with Faradion, Lithium Werks will enable us to accelerate our vision of establishing India at the core of developments in global battery chemistries and help us provide a secure, safe and high-performance supply chain to the large and growing Indian EV and Energy Storage markets.”

Lithium Werks currently has a world class IP portfolio with some 219 patents. It also has a product development pipeline underpinned by unique IP, and design and engineering expertise, as well as an integrated cell manufacturing capability.

According to Reliance, it will be leveraging the experience of these senior management teams, together with the technology and know-how gained through acquisition of Faradion Limited, a global leader in sodium-ion cell chemistry, and Lithium Werks, to establish an end-to-end battery ecosystem.

This will allow Reliance to deliver manufacturing at large scale certain key supply chain materials, and a cell manufacturing facility including leading IOT/AI capabilities giving Reliance the flexibility to produce batteries and battery module systems consisting of different chemistries for various applications.