Must admit I have a similar feeling. There is a direct link to CATL - simply go to page 5 of the link posted by @sydneyr
Clearly hydroxide is in demand as I posted yesterday, given the requirements of NCM and NCA batteries (and the fact those battery types take hydroxide). Hence the move now to get a stake in the deposit IMO.
However, between this new player, Hauyou and Bin Guo around 25% of the AVZ register is already Chinese owned (i.e. the question is whether these players are independent and competing against each other because that will be healthy for the SP, or whether they are 'colluding together' in securing independently a resource for the Chinese Government which would not be healthy for the SP). Not also clear how many others players/SH are also Chinese based, so is 25% a minimum control?.
Would have preferred a European/USA player for this placement, so time will tell exactly how this plays out SP wise and/or whether the door has now shut to European/USA players (i.e. obviously will be interesting if non-Chinese companies enter into equity for Offtake Agreements in due course but time will tell, but the door appears to be closing on that but still remains slightly ajar so next actions by management, on how they seek to get this to mining, here will determine that fait).
At this stage I too feel NF has been out-manourvered.
I am still confused with what these monies will be used for as AVZ was stated to be already funded to DFS. Would be interested what these 'early development works' are, as well given you didn't need to raise that much money to deal with the Dathomir 5% project interest to be transferred to AVZ, from recollection. Furthermore, the comment on tin credits is interesting as I certainly thought AVZ/Dathomir already had the tin rights (albeit as I have posted in the past I don't feel they will be as significant as an offset to transport costs as some think). Refer - Post #: 40024479
With the link to CATL there is positives in the announcement that the AVZ deposit is viewed as good, but creates some uncertainty as to what strategies are been adopted here by the interested stakeholders, including how independent and competitive among themselves are these Chinese entities on the AVZ register. Time will tell.
What will annoy me is the performance shares management will get here for doing their job. If the raise was at a much higher SP, or the SP was higher than where it is currently, then I might be less annoyed on that aspect than what I am now.
