£100m deal to acquire battery technology company

Sheffield and Oxford-based battery technology business, Faradion, has been acquired for an enterprise value of £100m.

Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Indian-based giant Reliance Industries Ltd, has acquired a 100% shareholding in Faradion.

In addition, RNESL will also invest £25m as primary investment as growth capital to accelerate commercial roll out.

Faradion has a strategic, wide-reaching and extensive IP portfolio covering several aspects of sodium-ion technology.

Its proprietary technology delivers solutions for a broad range of applications; including mobility, energy storage, backup power and energy in remote locations.

Reliance is India’s largest private sector company, with a consolidated turnover of $73.8bn/£54.8bn) for the year ended March 31, 2021.

Its activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services.

Reliance says it will use Faradion’s technology at its proposed fully integrated energy storage giga-factory as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project at Jamnagar, in western India.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, said: “We welcome Faradion and its experienced team to the Reliance family.

“This will further strengthen and build upon our ambition to create one of the most advanced and integrated New Energy ecosystem and put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies.

“The sodium-ion technology developed by Faradion provides a globally leading energy storage and battery solution which is safe, sustainable, provides high energy density and is significantly cost competitive.

“In addition, it has wide use applications from mobility to grid scale storage and back-up power.”

“Most importantly, it utilises sodium, which will secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing EV charging market.

“We will work with Faradion’s management and accelerate its plans to commercialise the technology through building integrated and end-to-end giga scale manufacturing in India.

“We believe this will be one of our many steps that will also enable, accelerate, and secure large scale energy storage requirements for our Indian partners developing and transforming India’s EV mobility and transport sector.”

James Quinn, CEO of Faradion, said: “Faradion has been one of the first to champion sodium-ion battery technology.

“Reliance is the perfect partner for supporting our growth in the rapidly expanding Indian market and to jointly speed up the transformation of the global energy market.

“Becoming part of the Reliance group validates the incredible work our team has done in advancing sodium-ion technology.”

Dr Chris Wright, chairman and co-founder of Faradion, added: “Dr Jerry Barker, Ashwin Kumaraswamy and I founded Faradion in 2010 to develop sodium-ion technology and bring it to market, with funds from Mercia Asset Management.

“This deal with Reliance firmly establishes our sodium-ion batteries as an integral part of the global value chain for cheaper, cleaner, more sustainable energy for decades to come.”