Global Lithium (ASX:GL1), currently the subject of an internal dispute between its Chairman and a Chinese shareholder controlling 30 to 40% of shares alongside associates, looks set to entertain a firey AGM next month.
The Takeovers Panel of Australia has declined to look into the situation after a confidential report presented to the government by Global Lithium last year.
The ultimate thrust of that report contended Mr. Dianmin Chen, the Chinese shareholder, was inappropriately exerting influence over the company.
Global put it to the government that the situation effectively breached foreign interference laws. But the Takeovers Panel, on the grounds of timing more than anything geopolitical (as far as its published statement on Friday read), has declined to pursue that.
The Foreign Investment Review Board has also been called on; that’s why there’s an AGM in February. The meeting was delayed to give investigators more time.
A stoush since mid-2024, principally over what direction the company ought to take in the face of tanking lithium prices, now promises to boil into a full-on run at the company by shareholders opposed to the vision of chair Ron Mitchell.
That vision might be hard for Mitchell to change, even if he wanted to – MinRes’s Chris Ellison holds some 10% of GL1; Gina Rinehart holds around 5%.
But it’s not hard to see what ‘Chinese shareholders’ are getting at – lithium companies are dying left and right, WA’s a prime mining jurisdiction, and there could be more money to be made exploring for something else.
It’s believed Chen has his eyes on copper and gold, but others on the board want to remain a lithium company – that’s the real bottom line, here.
A resolution at the AGM to settle that argument once and for all looks set to go ahead – likely making for a tense meeting.
GL1 last traded at 18cps. It was worth around $2.30/sh two years ago.
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