Draslovka Eyes Growth in Sodium-Ion Battery Market
By Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech chemicals maker Draslovka expects expansion into the battery supply chain to generate more than a third of its gross earnings within five years as demand for sodium-ion batteries grows, CEO Pavel Bruzek Jr. said.
The company making chemicals for the metals mining industry and farming has expanded in recent years and draws most of its revenues from U.S. operations. This month, it struck a partnership with Natron Energy to produce Prussian blue material for the U.S. group's batteries.
Prussian blue is made from one of Draslovka's main products, sodium cyanide, which it produces in the United States and the Czech Republic.
Bruzek told Reuters late on Friday a Czech production line for Natron Energy, expected to start in 2026, would be used as a blueprint for a larger U.S. plant to feed Natron, which said last year it planned to invest $1.4 billion in a sodium-ion battery facility in North Carolina.
Sodium-based batteries - which only hold about half as much energy per kilogram as the lithium-powered batteries in electric vehicles - are used for shorter-term energy storage in, for example, data centres.
Bruzek said global economic turmoil has pushed back Draslovka's plans to raise its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to around $400 million by 2028 to around 2029 or 2030, on revenue of around $1 billion.
"We are on track to get there but we will not get there as per originally planned," he said.
He said the new business "definitely can" contribute a third of EBITDA in the future, adding "it can be even more".
Draslovka had adjusted EBITDA of $74.8 million in 2023, and an EBITDA margin of 16%. Bruzek said its outlook was for a higher margin driven by sales of services and capital-intensive solutions.
He said Draslovka, controlled by Czech family investment office BPD Partners and Bruzek's family, was looking for potential partners to fund expansion, but for the time being it was being supported by current shareholders.
Oaktree Capital Management invested $150 million in Draslovka in 2023.
Draslovka has previously looked at an initial public offering but Bruzek said the time was not right.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
