Keppel Acquires $50m Stake Battery Biz
Keppel Corporation Limited, through its wholly owned subsidiary KepVenture Pte Ltd (Keppel), has entered into an agreement with Envision AESC to invest $50 million for a minority stake in Envision AESC Group Ltd, a leading intelligent lithium-ion battery company. This co-investment with Envision is in line with Keppel's efforts to deploy innovative concepts in its solutions for sustainable urbanization.
Envision AESC Group Ltd recently completed the acquisition of Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), a former venture between Nissan Motor Company (Nissan) and the NEC Group. It has also acquired the entire share capital of NEC Energy Devices, Ltd., a battery electrode manufacturing company owned by NEC Corporation. Envision AESC and Nissan hold approximately 80% and 20% of the shares of the newly established Japanese holding company, Envision AESC Group Ltd., respectively.
Presently, Envision AESC Group Ltd has the capacity of 7.5GWh and a workforce of 1,400 employees across Japan, the US and the UK. Envision AESC Group Ltd is expanding its production into China and is engaging various global automakers to grow its customer base.
Both Keppel and Envision are working to introduce IoT-enabled storage devices that can help smart buildings and smart grids to become more energy efficient. IoT-enabled batteries can help buildings realize cost savings through accurate monitoring and forecasting of energy consumption and peak shavings. These smart devices can also make grids more efficient by sensing and reporting outages and re-routing power around faults, thereby improving demand flexibility and lowering energy consumption and operating costs.
Apart from IoT-enabled batteries, Keppel and Envision are also exploring other potential areas of collaboration to create new solutions for smart cities, renewable energy, IoT-enabled townships and power generation, among others.
The above mentioned transaction will not have any material impact on the net tangible assets and earnings per share of Keppel Corporation Limited for the financial year ending December 31, 2019.