Reliance Caps Slew of Green Purchases With U.K. Battery Firm

(Bloomberg) -- A wholly-owned unit of Reliance Industries Ltd. will buy U.K.'s Faradion Ltd., a sodium-ion battery technology firm, for an enterprise value of 100 million pounds ($135 million) as billionaire Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate accelerates its push into renewable energy. 

Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd., which has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Faradion, will also be investing 25 million pounds in the Sheffield and Oxford-based firm to expedite the commercial roll out, according to an exchange filing Friday.

“Faradion's sodium-ion technology provides significant advantages compared to alternative battery technologies,” Reliance said in the filing, calling it low cost, scalable and sustainable. There is “no dependence” on cobalt, lithium, copper or graphite, it added.

The transaction marks the sixth green deal for the retail-to-refining conglomerate that has committed to invest $10 billion in sustainable energy initiatives over three years. Ambani, Asia's richest man, wants to transform Reliance that still gets nearly 60% of its revenue from fossil-fuel related businesses and aims to make it carbon net-zero by 2035.

Reliance shares rose as much as 0.9% on Friday in Mumbai during trading. The stock has advanced about 19% this year.

Reliance will use this newly acquired technology at its proposed energy storage giga-factory in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat where it operates the world's largest refining complex. Ambani plans to build four giga-factories for making electrolyzers for producing green hydrogen, solar modules, fuel cells and storage batteries. 

The Faradion acquisition will “put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies,” Ambani said in a statement. “Most importantly, it utilizes sodium, which will secure India's energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing EV charging market.”

India has a target of creating 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and turn net carbon zero by 2070.

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