Coronavirus fast track’s Waislitz-backed firm’s China deal

The Alex Waislitz-backed tech outfit Envirosuite says COVID-19 has accelerated a new $2.8m China partnership.

11/09/19 Philanthropist Alex Waislitz in his Melbourne office talking about the next steps for his foundation. Aaron Francis/The Australian

The Alex Waislitz-backed environmental management company known as Envirosuite says the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated community awareness in China of public health issues, underpinning the company winning a significant water monitoring contract in the country.

Under the $2.8m deal Envirosuite will supply specialised water monitoring equipment to the Chongqing Lianquing Instrumentation company (CLI), which is closely related to the Shanghai-listed Chongqing Water Group.

The Australian firm will obtain and commission an initial 375 third-party water quality analysers for 11 water and wastewater treatment plants across Chongqing city in the western part of China.

Envirosuite chief executive Peter White said the contract was fast-tracked as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

“We are observing in China that the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated community awareness of public health issues particularly in the air and water quality areas. There now seems to be more focus on reducing the risk of future public health issues with tighter regulatory requirements being enforced,’’ he said.

“As a result, we are witnessing a marked increase in interest for our solutions. Based on the number of near-term opportunities, we are confident that our China subsidiary will achieve revenue in excess of $10m this calendar year.”

Envirosuite shares closed 8 per cent higher on Tuesday but at 8.2c are still well below the record high of 38c they reached last October.

Earlier this year the firm paid $85m for EMS Bruel & Kjaer Holdings, a global environmental technology group with over 400 customers in 40 countries and approximately 200 staff.

It specialises in environmental noise and vibration monitoring and is the recognised market leader in addressing airport noise globally.

Envirosuite said this week that while the global airline industry was clearly in turmoil, the main growth focus of the acquired EMS business in the last two years had been in providing noise and vibration monitoring solutions to infrastructure projects.

“As demonstrated in previous global recoveries, the low interest rate settings and the monetary and fiscal stimulus measures implemented by central banks and governments to support their economies is expected to result in a sustained positive outlook for this sector in the medium to long term,’’ Mr White said.

“In the nearer term we see the main growth drivers for the Envirosuite being the China market, the global mining and wastewater industrial sectors, and the cross-sell opportunities across the newly expanded customer base leveraging our broadened solution suite.”