“If we’ve learnt anything from the recent energy crisis across the globe, and specifically in Europe, is that we need clean, cheap and scalable energy now.” Pic: Getty Images
Experts
MoneyTalks is Stockhead’s regular drill down into what stocks investors are looking at right now. We’ll tap our extensive list of experts to hear what’s hot, their top picks, and what they’re looking out for.
Today we hear from Ali Ukani, Sustainability & ESG Investments at PEAK Assest Management.
Ukani says one of the key areas of focus at PEAK Asset Management is the energy transition space.
“If we’ve learnt anything from the recent energy crisis across the globe, and specifically in Europe, is that we need clean, cheap and scalable energy now.”
He states that PEAK is ‘bullish’ on uranium at the moment and believes that nuclear energy is going to play a massive role in the decarbonisation of the global energy mix.
“Nuclear has potential to be one of the cheapest and cleanest energy sources and uranium is key to powering the nuclear revolution.
“We are also bullish on the circular economy, which is a broader sector but one becoming increasingly important as we get closer to that 2030 target, when it is going to become mandatory for companies to start reporting on those scope 2 and 3 emissions.”
The circular economy is a systems solution framework tackling global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution.
By focusing on three core principals such as eliminating waste and pollution, circulating productions and materials and regenerating nature – the process aims to put an end to waste pollution.
“Circularity will drive efficiencies across the value chain, and we see promising opportunities for a number of our portfolio companies.”
NC6 have developed a patented technology that converts industrial waste into fibre.
“This fibre uses much less energy and water and CO2 emissions in general across the product life cycle,” Ukani says.
“They have partnered with Grasim Industries, a multi-billion-dollar company out of India who are the largest rayon manufacturers in the world.
“They’ve completed their first successful pilot spin off the fabric so they know they can actually produce fabric from waste, and they are working with big names in the industry such as Zara and the North Face.”
Fashion is one of the biggest industrial polluters, accounting for up to 10% of global carbon dioxide output – more than international flights and shipping combined, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
“The fashion industry is a heavy emitter, which makes it a considerably large addressable market. The landscape is definitely changing, driven by a combination of consumer demand and stakeholder expectations and regulation,” Ukani says.
“The share price has come off a bit, but it is trading at a really attractive valuation at the moment – it still has a small market cap but the upside is huge and the next step for the company is to convert some of the pilot orders they have into purchase orders.”
Following the pilot spin, NC6 has sent off batches of fabric to big fashion houses for internal testing and once that testing comes back, Ukani says they should start to see some revenues coming in.
RAN takes curbside recycling such as hard plastic waste and converts it into pallets and fencing.
The business has a factory in Indonesia, but the management team is located in Australia and the company works with big brands such as Nestle.
“In Australia, we have a big crisis where all of our recycling goes into collection centres as they are no longer shipped off overseas,” Ukani says.
“However, these collection centres are overflowing, and I mean it’s simple, the waste either goes into landfill or we are going to have to find ways to up-cycle it and one of those ways is what Range is doing.
“They set up an Australian operation last year and are looking to expand – they have a big addressable market in terms of being able to take plastic out of the waste stream and away from landfill and converting it into products that are better for environment.”
NOW READ: This company has invented a recyclable plastic pallet, and its share price jumped 47pc today
ECT has developed a patented process whereby it converts brown coal into zero emission hydrogen energy.
“Coal plays a big role in the energy mix today, but it is fleeting – ECT has developed a technology where they can transition that energy source from a low waste stream type of coal to zero-emission hydrogen.
“Some of the by-products they can access out of that include agricultural char which can then be used for fertilisers and regenerative agriculture, and they are also looking at potential applications in the graphene space,” Ukani says.
Peak Asset Management are in the process of finalising the IPO documentation with the ASX for uranium focused T92.
Ukani says the business owns a substantial landholding in Canada’s Athabasca region right next to historically producing mines like the Cigar Lake Mine.
“The company has a very impressive board which includes Andrew Vigar who is part of the founding team at Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) – he is a geologist with more than 40 years’ experience.
“We are really excited about this stock, the IPO is going to hit the boards in the next couple of months.”
The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead.Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.
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