Richlister St Baker sees stake in Novonix surge more than $2m

Queensland rich-lister Trevor St Baker saw his stake in  Novonix surge by $2.3m after the battery materials company sealed its biggest ever deal in the North American EV market.

Energy billionaire Trevor St Baker recharges his 4 year old Nissan Leaf with one of his companies made charging stations near his home in St Lucia, Brisbane.

Queensland rich-lister Trevor St Baker saw his stake in Novonix surge by $2.3m Friday after the battery materials company sealed its biggest ever deal in the burgeoning $65bn North American electric vehicle market. The $153m deal will see Brisbane-based Novonix supply tonnes of battery material to Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Energy.

Shares in Novonix, whose board includes former Dow Chemical boss Andrew Liveris, surged more than 10 per cent in afternoon trade on the ASX to 68 cents.

St Baker (illustrated) holds about 39m shares in Novonix meaning his stake in the Brisbane-based firm surged to $26m. The shares are still down more than 60 per cent over the past year. Under the three-year binding off-take arrangement, 10,0000 tonnes of high-performance synthetic graphite anode material will be shipped to Panasonic Energy’s North American EV battery operations from Novonix’s Riverside facility in Chattanooga,Tennessee. Panasonic Energy is working to expand its production of EV batteries in North America to meet increased demand while also increasing the percentage of materials procured locally. The Biden administration is moving to wean the US electric vehicle battery chain away from China as it strengthens local supply chain in key sectors.

Novonix chief executive Chris Burns says the binding agreement with Panasonic Energy cemented the Brisbane company’s position in the rapidly expanding North American market. “Off-take agreements with high-quality partners such as Panasonic Energy solidify our position as a leader in onshoring the supply chain of synthetic graphite and accelerating the adoption of clean energy in the industry,” says Burns.

Trevor St Baker recharges his 4 year old Nissan Leaf with one of his companies made charging stations near his home in St Lucia.

Electric vehicle sales were forecast to hit a record 9 per cent of all passenger vehicles in the US last year, according to Atlas Public Policy.

It was the first time more than 1 million EVs were sold in the United States in one calendar year, probably reaching between 1.3 million and 1.4 million cars. Panasonic Energy president Shoichiro Watanabe says the company will need to build four more factories to reach its target for a sharp boost in annual capacity of batteries for electric vehicles by 2031.

Burns says Panasonic’s reputation, quality standards, and growth plans represented a huge opportunity for Novonix. “Panasonic Energy is building a new facility in Kansas, very close to Chattanooga,” say Burns. “They also operate the gigafactory in tandem with Tesla in Reno, Nevada and all of this is focused on local consumption and local production of materials.”

Novonix last year sealed a $44.9m deal with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution allowing the firms to research and develop battery materials for electric vehicles and storage systems.

Burns says he was not concerned that the possible election of Donald Trump as president would wind back incentives, including tax credits, for electric vehicles. “The political landscape has an important role to play in the growth of our sector but I think it is important to understand there’s a lot of alignment in the goals between administrations.” he says.