Ann: Change in substantial holding - Wyloo, page-6

IGO need to pull their finger out PDQ…

Andrew Forrest inches up at Western Areas

Street Talk
Andrew Forrest’s investment vehicles seem to be ruffling some feathers among nickel miners and processors in Western Australia.
Forrest’s Wyloo family of companies have bought a $9.6 million block of Western Area shares, which takes its holding in Western Areas from 5.28 per cent to 6.29 per cent, according to ASX filings.
Street Talk understands Wyloo’s move is a part of a broader push towards the metal.
Wyloo has already accumulated other nickel-related interests; it owns 15 per cent of WA nickel explorer Mincor and 12 per cent of Poseidon. And it popped up on Western Areas’ register soon after IGO’s mid-August $1 billion odd bid for the nickel miner.
Wyloo’s ambition is understood to be breaking up BHP’s dominance of nickel processing in Western Australia. BHP has a nickel smelter at Kalgoorlie and a nickel refinery at Kwinana, where it processes third-party nickel ore acquired via offtake agreements with the nickel players.
BHP and Wyloo have already squared off at Canadian nickel miner Noront Resources. Wyloo won that round, beating BHP’s offer by 27 per cent.
BHP’s Kwinana plant produced its first nickel sulphate in October. BHP has advised it would produce enough of the compound to make 700,000 electric vehicle batteries each year. Nearly 85 per cent of the nickel BHP produces is currently supplied to the battery market.
While its shareholding is not enough to block a deal at present, Forrest related companies are understood to be against IGO’s bid for Western Areas because of IGO’s exposure to metals other than nickel.
Western Areas shareholders are now waiting for IGO to firm up their non-binding offer, with some watchers expecting the firm offer to land before the holidays.