Article in FT on Monday- good to see money flowing into this...

Article in FT on Monday- good to see money flowing into this area. Perhaps this is the real reason why MS has changed its tune from being serial downramper to well ... selling the lithium story to new shareholders through an IPO? It's little bit ironic don't you think ! Tianqi Lithium, China’s biggest producer of the battery raw material, has chosen Morgan Stanley and CLSA for a listing in Hong Kong to fund its $4.07bn purchase of a stake in Chile’s SQM, according to a prospectus. The Chengdu-based company said 90 per cent of the listing proceeds will be used to “partially repay debt” for the deal, which was announced in May. The rest will be for general corporate purposes, it said. Tianqi still needs regulatory approval for its purchase of Nutrien’s 24 per cent stake in SQM, which will make it the second-largest shareholder in the company after Julio Ponce Lerou, a billionaire Chilean businessman. Tianqi said it has borrowed a total of $3.5bn to fund the deal. The transaction has raised concerns in Chile about Tianqi’s dominance in the lithium market. In June Chile’s national competition authority, the FNE, opened an investigation into the deal. “As a result, the SQM transaction might be delayed, modified or entirely blocked if the FNE determines that it entails antitrust risks and refers the SQM Transaction to the Chilean Antitrust Court,” Tianqi said in its listing prospectus filed in Hong Kong. Chengdu-based Tianqi mines lithium in China and also at the Greenbushes hard rock mine in Australia, the largest lithium mine in the world. The company has become “a critical supplier in the supply chain system of many key battery and EV OEMs around the world,” according to its prospectus. Tianqi said it aims to expand its business into Northeast Asia and Europe, “to strengthen our ties with top-tier end customers in lithium-based new energy sectors such as EV and energy storage systems.” “We plan to enter into medium- to long-term supply contracts with industry leading international customers which have stringent requirements on product quality and consistency with strict accreditation processes,” it said. Demand for lithium is set to grow by 19.8 per cent a year up to 2027 due to growing sales of electric cars and greater of use of batteries for storage of renewable energy, Tianqi said, citing data from consultancy Roskill. But shares in lithium producers have declined this year, on concerns about an oversupply of the battery raw material. Shares in SQM have fallen 24 per cent year-to-date in New York.