Trevor St Baker scores $344m windfall from Tritium’s Nasdaq debut
Brisbane richlister Trevor St Baker could probably buy up the country’s entire fleet of Tesla cars after the successful listing of electric vehicle charger maker Tritium in New York.
Brisbane rich-lister Trevor St Baker could probably buy up the country‘s entire fleet of Tesla cars after the successful listing of electric vehicle charger maker Tritium on Nasdaq.
Mr St Baker and his St Baker Energy Innovation Fund’s 31.5 million shares in the company are now worth about A$344.7m following the listing that was capped overnight by Mr St Baker and Tritium chief executive Jane Hunter ringing the closing bell of the exchange in New York.
Shares in Brisbane-based Tritium closed at $US7.74 on Wednesday after enduring a few rough trading sessions on the back of global market volatility.
The stock debuted at US$9.33 on January 14 following Tritium’s $1.8bn merger last year with a US investment firm. Tritium co-founder David Finn‘s 4.1 million shares are worth about $43m.
Mr St Baker, who is the founder of the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund, has long backed the potential of Tritium that was founded in 2001 by three PhD graduates who won a solar-powered car competition.
The rich-lister visited Washington in 2018 to help drum up business for the company as part of a delegation led by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“Tritium’s listing on the Nasdaq marks a momentous occasion, not only for the fund and me personally, but as proof that Australia can lead the world in e-mobility innovation,” said Mr St Baker.
“The fund was able to see Tritium’s global potential early on and our team has worked to help the start-up grow and become Brisbane’s first unicorn (billion dollar start-up).
“The transaction allows people around the world to have a stake in Tritium’s success, and the funding will help the company continue to keep up with the rapid expansion of the e-mobility sector globally.”
Mr St Baker talked up the potential of Tritium, which he said had the potential to become the biggest electric vehicle charging business in the US.
“They are a big employer in Queensland and have been leading the charge to create an electric super highway,” he said. Mr St Baker also has stake in battery technology company Novonix worth about $660m.
Ms Hunter said Tritium was set to expand its global manufacturing capacity and poised to overtake engineering giant ABB as the world’s biggest EV charging maker.
She said despite the increasing global focus of Tritium, Brisbane would remain the engineering hub for the company. “Brisbane is a place where people want to work because of the lifestyle,” said Ms Hunter, a former executive at Boeing.
Ms Hunter said as a US public company, Tritium was well positioned to benefit from the accelerating long-term growth of the global electric vehicle market.
“The EV market is projected to have a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 per cent through 2040,“ she said. “The transport industry is being electrified, which means it is more important than ever for electric vehicle owners to have access to rapid, reliable charging infrastructure.”
Ms Hunter said she would take the opportunity during her visit to the US to talk to potential new customers including the New York Police Department.
US President Joe Biden has proposed a $US400bn public investment in the automobile industry to improve battery technology and change the federal vehicle fleet to electric cars and trucks, while also installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.
Mr Biden’s proposed $US1.7 trillion infrastructure plan also earmarks $US174bn to boost the domestic EV market with tax credits and grants for battery manufacturers.
Tritium, which exports most of its chargers to the US and Europe, last year released a new and more powerful charging system that also provides new payment systems.
Ms Hunter said Tritium would continue to expand its products and global footprint, which had already enabled more than 3.6 million high-power charging sessions across 41 countries.
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