ChanticleerThey learn quick in the West!Only one week after...

Chanticleer

They learn quick in the West!Only one week after Liontown Resources shareholders saw their rollicking $6.6 billion payday go up in smoke, next lithium cab off the rank Azure Minerals has gone one step further to ensure shareholders can get a piece of its $1.63 billion deal.Azure Mienrals boss Tony Rovira. Ross SwanboroughHow? Azure has added some billionaire-buying protection.Its friendly deal with Chilean group SQM is back-stopped by a conditions-lite takeover offer at a slightly lower price.So even if a billionaire was to buy a stake on a whim – just like Gina Rinehart did to help spoil Liontown’s deal last week or Chris Ellison has done at a handful of juniors – and spoils the proposed scheme of arrangement, shareholders should still be able to get their Chilean payday via an off-market takeover offer.At worst, Azure investors should be looking at $3.50 a share.At best, shareholders will get $3.52 under the scheme of arrangement, or more if another bidder pops out of the woodwork.It is clever dealmaking from a company that is four or five years (or more) from production at its Andover Project in the Pilbara, and a suitor who identified the opportunity 12 months ago, dipped its toe in via a 19.9 per cent stake and is now going all-in.It is also timely given Liontown’s saga; a full-course of due diligence by SQM’s rival Albemarle, only for the suitor to flee and a mad scramble for funding. Rinehart buying a 19.9 per cent stake during the diligence period was a material factor.Azure shares jumped to $3.50 on resumption of trading on Thursday – the backstopped price. It suggests there is more to play out, although it is very early days and there is plenty of heat in the Azure story.It wraps up a huge 12 months for Azure and its shareholders. The company’s shares were trading at 28¢ this time last year, back before lithium exploration ramped up at Andover.Since that ramp up – officially announced in November – it has had announcement after announcement of lithium intersections and drill results at Andover. SQM paid $20 million for a 19.9 per cent stake in January, and topped up at an equity raising in August.The other major players include Mark Creasy’s Yandal Investments, which has a 13.2 per cent stake as well as 40 per cent of the Andover project, and Germany’s Delphi, which has pre-promised its 10.8 per cent holding into the deal.