Many reasons an advance payment wouldn't work on its own.
Advance payments are self liquidating and typically shorter tenor than corporate or project debt. In other words, it would require larger periodic repayments squeezed into a shorter term facility. AJM was not in a position to pay interest let alone make any additional repayments on existing debt so how would it pay back an advance payment with a more agressive repayment profile.
None of the offtakes (by volume) are large enough to support an advance payment of the size you are suggesting.
That isn't to say an advance payment will not be part of the restructure plan. It may well be and it would help with the whole debt piece as it demonstrates to incoming lenders a financial commitment from offtaker(s).
As
@Rupfel just said the Ganfeng offtake is due for renewal next year, being AJMs cornerstone offtaker and one with the clearest link to downstream battery manufacturers and EV OEMs it would be a good time to lock in the offtake with an advance payment to provide the additional working capital on top of the intended institutional CR.
The advance payment would require incoming lender consent, either to share in the security pool or rank above core debt in cash waterfall terms. A small price to pay in exchange for a demonstrated financial commitment from the offtaker or what I call the glue that makes the offtake stick.
Aimo
