Mumbai, Mar 14 (IANS): Reliance Industries' subsidiary Reliance New Energy Ltd on Monday signed definitive agreements to acquire "substantially" all of the assets of Lithium Werks BV for a total transaction value of $61 million, including funding for future growth.

The assets include the entire patent portfolio of Lithium Werks - a leading provider of cobalt free and high-performance 'Lithium Iron Phosphate' (LFP) batteries, its manufacturing facility in China, key business contracts and hiring of existing employees as a going concern.

Founded in 2017, through acquisition of certain assets of 'Valence' and 'A123' industrial division, the management of Lithium Werks has over 30 years of battery expertise and nearly 200 MWh annual production capacity including coating, cell and custom module manufacturing capability.

According to the RIL, with the recent resurgence in demand for LFP batteries, Lithium Werks is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the global opportunities.

"LFP is fast gaining as one of the leading cell chemistries due to its cobalt and nickel free batteries, low cost and longer life compared to NMC and other chemistries," said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries.

"Lithium Werks is one of the leading LFP cell manufacturing companies globally and has a vast patent portfolio and a management team which brings tremendous experience of innovation across LFP value chain."

Ambani also said: "We are looking forward to working with the Lithium Werks team and are excited about the pace at which we are progressing towards establishing an end-to-end battery manufacturing and supply ecosystem for India markets.

"Along with Faradion, Lithium Werks will enable us to accelerate our vision of establishing India at the core of developments in global battery chemistries and help us provide a secure, safe and high-performance supply chain to the large and growing Indian EV and Energy Storage markets."