Allkem General Discussion, page-4047

Here's an aside about when Livent and its boss, Pall Graves, got their first pair of big boy pants.

"Livent Corporation was formed and incorporated by FMC Corporation as FMC Lithium USA Holding Corp. in the State of Delaware on February 27, 2018, and was subsequently renamed Livent Corporation ("Livent"). Livent's principal executive offices are located at 2929 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104."

from a 2019 SEC filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1742924/000174292420000012/livent201910-k.htm

same info from the 2020 filing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1742924/000174292421000016/lthm-20201231.htm

and the same again in the 2021 10-K filing. So up until sometime in 2021 Livent remained based in FMC's headquarters.

"FMC is headquartered in Philadelphia, 2929 Walnut Street, United States" (https://craft.co/fmc/locations)

In other words for at least three years it appears FMC could not trust Livent to organise its own cleaners and receptionists and for Mr Graves to actually run Livent without trainer wheels.

Eventually Livent's hq did relocate to what appears to be its own set of offices - Suite 2550, 1818 Market St Philadelphia (https://craft.co/livent/locations) - but which is still only about a kilometre down the road from FMC's hq: a bit like the corporate equivalent of Livent moving out of its parent's basement but still living close enough to have its mum do its laundry every week. (for those who don't know, even other Americans openly mock what an absolute open sewer Philadelphia is and the only plausible reason for a chemicals company like Livent to be based there would be an uncut umbilical cord with FMC).

akgo - I have not seen any commentary from anyone claiming to be major AKE shareholders. My impression is that professional commentators were broadly positive about the merger taking place, as were many on hc. I did find it interesting though in the Q&A part of the webinar held on the announcement of the deal that one analyst and then a couple more expressed the view that they saw merit in principle in the merger but thought Livent was getting a steal at the 44:56 Livent:Allkem split, and that something more like 40:60 or even 30:70 would be closer to fair value. Be interesting to see what the Independent Expert has to say about the deal being "fair and reasonable".

My own view is that I would like to see a deal with a similar balance to the Orocobre Galaxy tie-up: with Allkem shareholders having closer to 60% of the newco, with Allkem directors being the majority of the board, newco remaining hq'ed in Australia (and feck off with the tax dodge of newco being incorporated in Ireland) and it almost goes without saying, with anyone other than Mr Calamari as CEO.