Billionaire investor Brian Flannery says Tritium needs to leave Australia to survive

Billionaire investor Brian Flannery says troubled EV charging firm Tritium needs to shift production overseas if it is to survive, saying he was shocked by its $190m losses.

Energy billionaire Brian Flannery says troubled fast-charging firm Tritium needed to shift production overseas if it was to survive, saying he was shocked by its deteriorating finances.

Mr Flannery, who owns about 5 per cent of the Brisbane-based company, said Tritium would need to trim overheads and lower manufacturing costs if it was to make its way in an increasingly competitive market.

He said Tritium was competing against larger competitors that could make chargers substantially cheaper in places like Estonia and China.

“They have got to prove to the market that they can make a margin of 20 to 30 per cent and you just can’t do that in Australia,” said Mr Flannery.

Tritium is seeking a financial lifeline after racking up almost $190m in losses in the past year to expand its operations in the US, including a huge new factory in Tennessee.

The Nasdaq-listed company, which includes energy rich-lister Trevor St Baker among its major shareholders, has reportedly approached the Queensland government for a $90m equity stake tied to guarantees to keep its ­Brisbane factory open. Tritium’s share price have slumped from listing price of $US10 to as low as US17c this week.

Mr Flannery said Tritium had good people and good products but faced some of the highest energy and labour costs in the world by manufacturing in Australia.

“Manufacturing is just not working in Australia,” said Mr Flannery. “Australia does some great things in farming and mining but moving nuts and bolts around the world is not feasible when you could get it made a lot cheaper in a place like Estonia.”

Brian Flannery. Picture: Tara Croser

Mr Flannery said he was ­initially attracted to Tritium because it planned to base its manufacturing in the US, one of the biggest markets for electric ­vehicles in the world. He said the move to US-based manufacturing should have been done earlier given the cost of importing and ­exporting manufactured goods from Australia was so prohibitive.

Pointing to overhead concerns, he said Tritium also had two levels of management – one based in the US and one in Brisbane.

He said the company, which runs a 400-strong workforce in Brisbane, could keep some of its engineering operations in Australia. Mr St Baker has injected funds into Tritium 10 times over the past decade, according to financial accounts lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Mr Flannery said he had not spoken to Mr St Baker, who sits on the Tritium board, about its ­financial situation.

Mr St Baker and Mr Flannery made a fortune when they sold the Vales Point coal station in 2022 for more than $200m after buying it from the NSW government for $1m in 2015. Tritium’s half-yearly accounts also reveal Mr St Baker’s Sunset Power provided $US20m in working capital for the company that was fully drawn down last December. Last November, Sunset Power also provided a $US10m loan.

“Tritium has demonstrated an ability to raise capital over a long period of time stretching back to 2012 to fund research and ­development and operational ­expansion through loss-making periods,” the half-yearly accounts state.

Tritium posted a loss of $US120.3m last financial year with net liabilities of $US134m, sparking a warning from auditor PwC that there was significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. PwC said Tritium had sought a number of waivers from its financiers after failing to meet requirements for minimum cash liquidity.

Last year, Tritium chief executive Jane Hunter boasted Tritium was set to expand its global manufacturing capacity and was poised to overtake engineering giant ABB as the world’s biggest EV charger maker. Mr St Baker and Ms Hunter did not respond to a request for comment.

Originally published as Billionaire investor Brian Flannery says Tritium needs to leave Australia to survive