The Times - UK (2020-10-14)

36 2GM Wednesday October 14 2020 | the times

Business

the start of this year to focus on its regu-

lated power networks business and on

investing in wind farms.

It also owns gas-fired power plants

and retains a division supplying gas and

electricity to businesses. The group,

based in Perth, reported adjusted oper-

ating profits of £1.5 billion in its finan-

cial year to March 2020. It has stakes in

a series of offshore wind projects that

will cost billions of pounds to build.

Gregor Alexander, 57, SSE’s finance

director, said: “This sale marks a major

step in our plans to secure at least £2 bil-

geothermal waters to

generate electricity at

a power plant and then

extracting the lithium.

It says that this process

has the potential to

deliver “zero-carbon”

lithium. The company

run by Elon Musk,

secured lithium mining

rights in Nevada.

At present Britain has

no lithium production

and Mr Wrathall, 57,

believes that Cornwall

could supply a

significant proportion of

the UK’s lithium needs.

Cornish Lithium has

secured funding from

the government to help

to build a £4 million

pilot extraction plant at

Redruth, tapping the

A

start-up

mining

company that

hopes to

produce

lithium in Cornwall has

raised £4 million in an

oversubscribed

crowdfunding campaign

(Emily Gosden writes).

Cornish Lithium said

last month that it had

discovered a “globally

significant” grade of

lithium, which is used in

electric vehicle

batteries, in hot springs

near Redruth in

Cornwall. It is also

exploring lithium

deposits in hard rock

near St Austell and

wants to look for other

battery metals, such as

cobalt and copper. It

began a fundraising

campaign on Crowdcube

on Monday seeking to

raise £1.5 million to fund

further work. By early

afternoon yesterday it

had raised almost

£4.1 million from more

than 2,600 investors.

Cornish Lithium was

founded in 2016 by

Jeremy Wrathall, a

former analyst at

Investec bank. He aims

to tap into growing

demand for lithium and

other metals for use in

the batteries that power

electric vehicles and

other technologies, such

as smartphones.

Last month Tesla, the

electric vehicle maker

1

Britain will still be borrowing

nearly £100 billion a year and

debt will be on a perilous

upward spiral at the end of the

present parliament as the state

shoulders the cost of rebuilding

the economy after the pandemic,

the International Monetary Fund

has warned. Page 35

2

Industry leaders have accused

the government of initiating

an “outrageous” blame game

over Brexit after Lord Agnew of

Oulton, a Treasury minister,

claimed that many companies had

adopted a “head in the sand”

approach to preparation. Page 35

3

Metro Bank has become the

latest lender to stop opening

new accounts for businesses

because of a surge in demand from

firms seeking bounce back loans,

for which borrowers must have a

current account. Page 35

4

SSE has sold its interest in

energy-from-waste power

plants in West Yorkshire for

£995 million to focus on power

networks and wind farms. The

utility group said that it was selling

a 50 per cent stake in two plants at

Ferrybridge and in a third plant at

Skelton Grange.

5

A start-up mining company

has raised £4 million in an

oversubscribed crowdfunding

campaign. Cornish Lithium said

last month that it had discovered a

“globally significant” grade of

lithium, which is used in electric

vehicle batteries, in hot springs

near Redruth in Cornwall.

6

BDO is now the auditor to

more listed British companies

than any other accounting

firm. It marks the first time that a

player outside the Big Four of

PWC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte has

led by number of listed audit

clients. Page 38

7

The jobs market has shown

signs of recovery after the

number of payrolled workers

rose for the first time since the

pandemic, job vacancies increased

at a record rate, total hours

worked increased and average pay

growth stopped falling. The Office

for National Statistics said payrolls

had risen by 20,000 in September

from August’s total. Page 40

8

Financial markets are at risk

of a sharp snap-back as

unfettered policy support in

the coronavirus pandemic has left

them overvalued, the

International Monetary Fund has

warned. A market correction

triggered by new virus outbreaks

or policy stumbles would create a

headwind to the recovery. Page 41

9

JP Morgan, America’s largest

bank, has recovered more

quickly than expected,

suggesting that the US economy is

in better shape than had been

thought. It unveiled a surprise

profit increase in a third-quarter

report that beat Wall Street’s

forecasts. Page 42

10

Klarna has been reported

to the data watchdog for

sending unsolicited

marketing encouraging recipients

to borrow money to buy clothes.

The Swedish online buy-now-pay-

later service sent out an email this

week encouraging people to

download its app. Page 43

Need to know

SSE dumps waste plants to focus

on a future built on green power

SSE has sold its interest in energy-

from-waste power plants in West York-

shire for £995 million as it offloads

assets to concentrate on power net-

works and wind farms.

The FTSE 100 utility group said yes-

terday that it was selling a 50 per cent

stake in two operational plants at

Ferrybridge and in a third plant under

development at Skelton Grange.

The buyer is European Diversified

Infrastructure Fund III, which is man-

aged by First Sentier Investors. The

business manages about €10 billion of

utility, transport and energy assets.

The deal means that SSE has agreed

£1.4 billion of sales towards its target of

offloading £2 billion of assets by next

autumn.

“The proceeds of these disposals will

support the company’s plans to invest

£7.5 billion in low-carbon energy infra-

structure over the next five years, help-

ing the UK to reach net-zero carbon

emissions, as well as reducing SSE’s net

debt,” the company said.

SSE, formerly known as Scottish and

Southern Energy, was best known to

the public as one of the “Big Six” house-

hold energy suppliers that dominated

the market over most of the past

decade. However, it offloaded its

domestic supply unit to Ovo Energy at

lion from disposals by autumn 2021.

While these multifuel assets have been

successful ventures for SSE, they are

non-core investments and we are

pleased to have agreed a sale that deliv-

ers significant value for shareholders

while sharpening our strategic focus on

our core low-carbon businesses.”

The two Ferrybridge plants can each

generate up to 75 megawatts of power.

The first started up in 2015 and can

process 725,000 tonnes of waste a year,

while the second began operations last

year and can process 675,000 tonnes of

waste. The proposed third plant at

Skelton Grange is due to get the go-

ahead next April and to start operating

in 2025. It will be able to process

400,000 tonnes of waste and generate

up to 45 megawatts of electricity.

Mr Alexander said: “Our disposal

programme demonstrates how the

company can create value from our

assets and supports our plans to invest

£7.5 billion over the next five years in

the low-carbon infrastructure needed

to stimulate a green economic recovery

and help the UK transition to a net-zero

future.”

John Musk, at RBC Capital Markets,

said that the valuation for the sale

“seems attractive” and the deal helped

to improve its balance sheet outlook.

SSE’s shares rose by 22p, or 1.7 per

cent, to £13.48 yesterday.

Crowd of investors

jump on Cornwall’s

lithium bandwagon

Emily Gosden Energy Editor

Seabed robots get backing from BP

BP has backed a start-

up company that plans

to use autonomous

underwater vehicles to

carry out seismic

surveys offshore (Emily

Gosden writes).

Blue Ocean Seismic

Services, or Boss, says

that its devices, which

look like miniature

submarines, will cut the

cost and environmental

footprint of surveying

the geology that lies

beneath the ocean floor.

The company, based

in Farnborough,

Hampshire, has raised

£10 million in a funding

round from BP

Ventures, the oil major’s

venture capital division,

Woodside and

Blue Ocean Monitoring.

Seismic surveys are

used to identify oil and

gasfields, as well as the

potential for storing

waste carbon dioxide

underground.

Simon Illingworth,

managing director of

Boss, said that at

present offshore

seismic surveys were

carried out by a boat

towing sensor

equipment or by

deploying remotely

operated vehicles from

a boat to position

sensors on the seabed

and then move them to

other locations.

Boss’s autonomous

vehicles “go off the side

of the boat, they

navigate themselves

down to the seabed, sit

on the seabed, then can

move by themselves to

the next position”, he

said. “They can stay

almost three months

moving from place to

place under water. You

can have thousands of

these out there and get

a really good image.”

Erin Hallock, senior

principal at BP Ventures,

said: “Using Boss’s

technology, we can gain

a deeper understanding

of geological formations,

while reducing the

environmental impact

of data acquisition.”