UK-based vanadium redox flow battery firm RedT will integrate the chief executive officer of US energy storage firm Avalon Battery Corporation on the successful completion of a merger between the two firms.
Larry Zulch will become the new chief executive of RedT subject to finalisation of the merger as Jeff Kenna and Scott McGregor prepare to leave the company on 31 December.
Kenna served the company for over a decade, and will step down as a non-executive director. McGregor, who stepped down from the board in March, was the firm’s former chief executive.
While the merger is being finalised, RedT’s executive management team headed by the company’s executive chairman Neil O’Brien and Fraser Welham, its chief financial office, will run the firm.
The two firms signed a non-binding MoU in July, with any deal subject to shareholder approval. If approved, the merger would take place as a reverse takeover under AIM rules, with a share for share acquisition of Avalon with RedT shares valued at 1.65p per share, valuing Avalon at $37.5 million.
Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) manufacturer Avalon’s proposed deal with RedT requires at least $30 million of new funds for the two to join UK’s Aim, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.
The announcements follow news of the merger on 25 July 2019 and that interim funding had been secured on 1 November 2019.
That funding was in the form of a convertible loan of $5 million by materials miner Bushveld Minerals to Avalon to help it complete its merger with RedT.
It was the first time Bushveld, which is aiming to increase its exposure to the stationary energy storage market, had become involved directly with a manufacturer of the VRFB technology.