BERLIN (Reuters) -Vulcan Energy Resources opened at 5.65 euros ($6.40) per share on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the first day of the German-Australian company’s dual listing.
Australian-listed shares in Vulcan closed 0.79% higher on Tuesday at A$8.91 ($6.36).
The company, which is developing geothermal energy and lithium extraction projects in Germany with commercial production expected to start in 2024, is also listed on Australia’s Stock Exchange.
Co-founded in 2018 under the name Koppar Resources Ltd and renamed the following year, Vulcan Energy has signed contracts with automakers Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault as well as Umicore and LG Chem’s battery unit LG Energy to supply up to a combined total of 282,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide over five to six-year terms.
While the company has been granted licences for an area totalling over 1,000 square kilometres, commercial production has not begun.
It needs to conduct seismic surveys on some locations and engage with local stakeholders over where to drill, with the exact time this process will take hard to predict.
The decision to list in Frankfurt was based on a conviction that the company had matured enough to attract a more conservative European investor base after its launch on the Australian exchange where raw material projects are more commonplace, CEO and co-founder Francis Wedin told Reuters.
“What we’re trying to do is develop projects which really need public acceptance,” Wedin said.
“We would like local communities, populations to be invested alongside us in the project, so we want to give them an opportunity to also buy shares in the company.”
The company, which according to the latest estimates will require around 1.8 billion euros in capital investment, raised 320 million AUD ($228.67 million) last year, with around 145 million of that still in the bank.
($1 = 0.8824 euros)
($1 = 1.3994 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Barbara Lewis)
