In my opinion, Private Equity groups would be the ones looking...

In my opinion, Private Equity groups would be the ones looking most closely at SFX. Given they have no desire to control the supply of mineral sands markets (like ILU), they would happily sit alongside the Chinese off-taker partner. As for Yansteel - they'd never get FIRB approval to buy out SFX.

For a PE fund, SFX represents a massive cash cow over the next 35 years. The best annuity stream they could ask for. With the development risk now removed from the project and commissioning well underway, it would be an ideal time to take advantage of panic-stricken shareholders who have been spooked by the recent quarterly and series of events unfolding at Strandline Resources.

I'm sure Bruce Griffin would prefer that structure too and my understanding is that Bruce has acted as a consultant for PE funds in the past. He would get a single sophisticated professional shareholder to report to instead of having to deal with hundreds of small whining shareholders and webinar calls. He would still be able to progress the development of his growth opportunities in Sri Lanka and Brazil.

Below is an example of one such Private Equity fund that invested in an Australian Mineral Sands project, although I question the wisdom of their chosen project given the environmental blockade that sits in front of it.

Appian Capital Advisory invested in Kalbar Resources which has the Fingerboards Project in Victoria (now rebranded Gippsland Critical Minerals in an attempt to make it more palatable to the green protestors in the region)

https://appiancapitaladvisory.com/portfolio/gippsland-critical-minerals/