A soon-to-be publicly traded company valued at $6 billion is headed to St. Louis. On Wednesday, a Missouri-based recycler of lithium-ion batteries as well as three South Korean companies got the OK from the Securities and Exchange Commission to be acquired by, and go public as, Evolution Metals, clearing the way for it to be traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Attorney Al Watkins, who quarterbacked the approval process on behalf of Missouri’s Critical Mineral Recovery, called that SEC approval a “big, huge hurdle” that, now cleared, means good things for St. Louis, where Evolution will set up headquarters. A dozen or so members of the company’s transition team are headed here now, Watkins says, the first of scores of executives that he says will work out of St. Louis. “I think I will probably open a bottle of beer sometime later this afternoon,” Watkins said on the morning of the approval. He added, “It’s been a big undertaking, a bigger accomplishment.”
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CMR CEO Rob Feldman has been in the metals recycling business since starting electronics recycler Interco in 1996. That company buys, dismantles, and processes more than 4 million pounds of what it calls “eScrap”—like old monitors, keyboards and TVs—every month.
More recently, CMR has become a leader in what’s called “urban mining,” extracting valuable material from previously used products. CMR extracts key components of old electric vehicles—the first generation of which are at the end of their lives—and recycles them for use in the production of new EVs. (Its Fredericktown plant recently suffered a sizable fire, but the company plans to rebuild.) The three South Korean companies process magnets used in lithium-ion batteries.
The $6 billion valuation comes from SEC filings, which state that 615.8 million shares of common stock will be issued at $10 each. “Watch what happens after it goes live on NASDAQ,” says Watkins. “That will give you an idea of how investors are viewing the value of the company.”
Why It Matters: Evolution’s C-suite setting up here is a welcome reversal of what has been a trend of public companies in St. Louis being acquired by entities located elsewhere, with many of the highest paid positions being relocated to places like Germany (Monsanto) or Belgium (Anheuser-Busch).
What’s Next: “The only thing standing between listing and where we are right now, is the completion of 2024 financials, and dropping them into a portal for the SEC,” Watkins says, noting that Evolution should appear on the exchange in roughly 45 days.
“Missouri is for the first time way ahead of the curve,” he adds. “Very significant players in the manufacturing world are jumping in to establish a presence in the immediate vicinity. With that comes more people, more high-paying jobs.”
