Hitachi pumps $10m into Envirosuite to help hit net zero target

Hitachi Construction Machinery will acquire a 12 per cent holding in Envirosuite.

Hitachi Construction Machinery has invested $10m into Australian richlister-backed Envirosuite to aid the Tokyo-listed company’s net zero ambitions.

Envirosuite, whose investors include Alex Waislitz’s Thorney Investments, Perennial and Ellerston, describes itself as an environmental intelligence technology company.

Hitachi Construction Machinery will acquire a 12 per cent holding in the company, with its investment priced at 5.8c a share. Hitachi is one of the world’s biggest construction machinery manufacturers, employing more than 26,000 people with revenues of ¥1.41 trillion ($14.2bn).

The company serves more than 400 mining sites in over 130 countries and areas globally, including Australia, North and Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Its investment comes almost a year after DataRoom revealed that a global private equity suitor was understood to have been running the numbers on Envirosuite.

While a deal never eventuated, with the suitor unable to make the numbers work, some believe the company is one private equity is keeping a watching brief on.

Envirosuite’s shares had dived 25 per cent in the past six months, with the ASX-listed company now valued at $57m. But in the past month they have rallied 12.5 per cent, and on Monday they jumped more than 11 per cent on the Hitachi deal.

Shares will be issued to Hitachi Construction Machinery in two tranches. The first, involving 158.5 million shares, are expected to be issued on Wednesday.

The second tranche of 807,000 shares is subject to a shareholder vote at Envirosuite’s annual general meeting later this year.

Hitachi Construction Machinery vice president and executive officer Eiji Fukunishi said: “We are excited to be investing in a strategic relationship with Envirosuite”.

“Their decades of experience and commitment to environmental and social responsibility while helping customers achieve their productivity goals aligns perfectly with Hitachi’s vision for ‘ensuring a prosperous land and society for the future, and contributing towards realising a safe and sustainable society’.

Envirosuite chief executive Jason Cooper said the companies expected to “set new standards in operational management and environmental responsibility for the mining industry globally”.

“The $10m investment and collaboration agreement represents definitive industry validation of our technology at the highest level, and will showcase our ability to help customers achieve their productivity and ESG (environment, social, governance) goals through an innovative site-wide digital solutions approach. This is a significant untapped opportunity in the mining industry,” Mr Cooper said.

Hitachi Construction Machinery general manager Eric Winsborrow has been appointed as a director of Envirosuite effective from Monday.