Janus Electric goes public

Clean energy incubator ReNu Energy has announced the proposed acquisition of Janus Electric via reverse takeover on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Upon completion, Janus Electric will be renamed Janus Electric Holdings Limited.

ReNu has launched an offer to raise $8.0-10.0 million to accelerate the rollout of swappable battery technology for heavy transport.

Majority shareholding is expected to be retained by Janus stakeholders in the merged entity.

Completion of the acquisition is subject to shareholder approvals being obtained and ReNu Energy satisfying chapters 1 and 2 of the ASX listing rules.

As for the Board and senior management, Dennis Lin is poised to provide strategic guidance.

“On behalf of the proposed Board members and management, I am very excited to be supporting another founder-led business,” said Lin.

“Particularly, one that is looking to provide economically attractive solutions that are also reliable and sustainable as we move forward.”

Ian Campbell is expected to be appointed as Managing Director and Janus founder Lex Forsyth will continue to focus on operational leadership and business development as Chief Operating Officer.

“We are thrilled to see another founder-led business debut on the ASX,” said proposed Non-Executive Director, Kristy Carr.

“The Janus technology is truly groundbreaking and set to disrupt the heavy road transport industry as it moves towards decarbonising the sector.”

This move, according to Janus, will reposition the company as a leader in heavy vehicle electrification by providing fleet operators with a ‘low capex solution’ to repurpose existing prime movers.

Janus technology is reported to be agnostic to truck type and battery chemistry which is ideal for flexibility and scalability.

The business will lean on an established subscription-based model to generate recurring revenues and aims to increase truck conversions to drive higher adoption of Janus ‘charge and change’ infrastructure, batteries and software systems.

As Australian road transport operations prioritise carbon emission reductions to meet scope 2 and 3 reporting requirements, Janus expects to play an important role in accelerating decarbonisation efforts across the industry.

Janus brings to market a proprietary ecosystem integrating Australian manufactured hardware with patented software and analytics which it expects will deliver efficient electrification options to drive the net zero transition.

Founded in Australia in 2020, Janus Electric entered the market with swappable batteries and conversion kit technology.

The Janus ‘charge and change’ infrastructure is reported to enable a four-minute battery exchange compared to hours of downtime required for fixed-battery electric trucks to recharge.

In terms of annual recurring revenue, once a truck is converted, Janus establishes a relationship with its customers and typically charges truck conversion fees, daily battery hire, electricity and usage, forklift authentication fees for battery swaps and subscription fees for real-time fleet management.

Conversion from diesel to Janus reportedly saves ~$0.20/km which can reduce annual running costs by ~16 per cent with as low as an eight-month payback period. Savings are subject to change with fluctuations in diesel price, while the payback period is, according to Janus, the amount of time it takes for a customer to generate enough savings to recover its initial additional capital cost compared to rebuilding a diesel engine.

Janus’ retrofit solution converts existing diesel trucks to electric including the following brands: Tesla, Kenworth, Peterbilt, Freightliner, Volvo, Scania, Nikola, BYD and Windrose.

Janus has converted about 23 trucks for fleets such as Cement Australia, Qube, Newcold, Adbri, Fennell Forestry, JJ Richards, Symons Clark Logistics and N.J. Ashton Group.

Forsyth comes from a family with more than 50 years in the trucking industry.

He started his career as an Operations Manager for FH Transport and moved on to the role of Managing Director at Sea Cargo Logistics before leading his family business, Forsyth Transport. He later became General Manager of Australian Network Fuels and specialised in diesel supply for Queensland truck fleets.

At Janus, Forsyth launched Australia’s first solar-powered ‘charge and change’ station at the Moorebank Intermodal Precinct in Sydney to optimise battery swapping for trucks.

Other recent electrification developments:

In other news, MLG will send a Kenworth T908 prime mover back into active service after it underwent a significant rebuild.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government is investing $1.1 billion to upgrade Victoria’s Western Freeway.