Why Lithium Australia wants to separately list its battery recycling assets

Just over six months on from its initial investment in battery recycling company Envirostream, Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT) is looking to put the asset into a separate listed entity.

Envirostream shreds lithium-ion batteries into a powder which is subsequently used to make new batteries.

Lithium Australia owns 23.9 per cent of Envirostream following its most recent top-up. It anticipates this entity being investment-ready in the first half of 2020.

Why a separate entity?

Griffin told Stockhead it meant investors could only put their money into what they are interested in.

“Our business structure has four divisions raw materials, lithium chemicals, batteries and recycling,” he said.

“The issue you have is if you don’t want exposure to a whole lot, it’s difficult to invest. We own 23.9 of the only company in Australia that is doing this approach.

“You might say I want exposure to batteries, but if I invest in Lithium Australia, I get exposure to raw materials which I might not want. Effectively your interest or focus gets diluted by other activities.

“The simple way is to create entities in which the public can invest in either sector or just invest in us.”

In this morning’s ASX announcement, he hinted this could happen with other business units.

“Other company business units are approaching commercialisation and as they do, we will adopt a similar approach in the interests of our shareholders,” he said.

WATCH: 90 Seconds With…Adrian Griffin, Lithium Australia

What if you don’t want to invest in batteries?

Stockhead put to him the proposition that investors may only be interested in the end-use of batteries – most particularly (but not exclusively) electric vehicles.

Griffin said you didn’t have to specifically want to invest in battery-making to consider this.

“There’s a whole spectrum of investors such as ethical funds and green funds and people actually environmentally conscious,” he said.

“They might not be interested in making a battery, but [more in] ensuring they do not go to landfill and ensuring we get maximum sustainability [from them].”

Lithium from seawater – it’s possible but is it worth pursuing?