It amazes me how the Chairman & founder of CATL joining the “syndicate” has mostly gone under the radar both on this forum and in promotions from Minbos.
One of the reasons I invested in Minbos was because Mr Liang Feng (Chairman & founder of the $18b world’s largest anode maker Putailai ) headed a syndicate and invested in Minbos back in July 2022 and was willing to provide finance. I was invested in the Lithium space at the time (and still are) so the significance of such a person investing in a Fertiliser company based in Angola was not lost on me.
Then in the Sept 4 P4 Concept Study they slipped in (on Page 2, small print - I’d have made a headline of it ) that the “Syndicate” is now controlled by Mr Liang Feng and Mr Zeng Yuqun the founder & Chairman of CATL. No mention was made that CATL is the World’s #2 largest EV Battery maker after LG Chem. Btw Bloomberg have him as #42 in the World’s richest people with $31.8b of personal wealth.
If I was Lindsay, I’d be shouting from the roof the calibre of these 2 investors - why would such people invest in a tin pot Fertilizer company?
Well we know the answer to that.
Just look at the promotion lithium companies do if they get an offtake from Tesla.
I just hope we get a small percentage free carried into the P4 JV and aren’t just a supplier of phosphate.
Lindsay talks of a strategic partnership for P4, these guys aren’t interested in mining phosphate, we have secured a site for GA - is it big enough to also accomodate P4?
We also have contracts for cheap power and have established a good working relationship with the Angolan Government & the people. A P4 plant would need to be in a similar place to our GA site - close to the hydro power.
This syndicate needs us! Helping fund the small amount we need to build our Phosphate plant is a drop in the ocean to them.
I find it interesting Mr Liang Feng (Putailai) brought the CATL chairman into the syndicate, Putailai is a supplier to CATL - these companies realise if they are going to sell cars into places like Europe (latest figures show 20% of European EV sales were Chinese) they will need to be as green as possible. You can’t get much greener than using the Hydro power Angola provides and at a low cost.
So we’ve delayed the project 3 months in part because:
"on an operational level we have the opportunity to put in place some turn key supply packages, that takes the risk away from all of the financiers" and
“we’re doing a few things on the side to structure the project so we get a good result for shareholders”
We are expecting finance this month (wouldn’t be surprised if it’s next month), so it sounds like we are also going to have some news on “supply packages” this month as they seem to go hand in hand according to Lindsay’s quote. Supply packages I’d interpret as offtakes, which is probably related to the interview at the conference when Lindsay said in relation to finance:
“but we’re really trying hard with strategic investors from China in regard to the ability to double the capacity of the phosphate mine send half for fertilizer”
Interesting times ahead
