That is a very interesting article. (the full version pasted below - sorry AFR doesn't paste well)
Wonder if they'll look at investing in Leo - seems to tick all the boxes. Obviously with FFX holding 20% a takeover is off the cards, a strategic investment quite possible, though they'd have to buy on market from FFX shareholders. Looking at today's action FFX shareholders are fairly shortsighted so anything is possible.
Reading the article, Lithium is the commodity they are chasing - there aren't too many producers out there, downstream processing though considered looks too expensive for their budget.
When Leo demerges, there are going to be many institutions etc wanting a piece, they can only buy from us
to quote
@FinnHold them tight people............Former Galaxy Resources chief executive Simon Hay is the latest Australian mining executive to pursue a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in the United States.
Mr Hay will be chairman of Battery Future Acquisition Corporation, which will seek to raise $US250 million ($346.9 million) through an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange with a view to buying assets linked to the rise of electric vehicles.
Simon Hay led Galaxy Resources into this year’s merger with Orocobre. Trevor Collens
A veteran of BHP and Iluka Resources, Mr Hay ran Australian lithium miner Galaxy in the two years before this year’s merger with Argentinian lithium producer Orocobre.
Battery Future Acquisition Corporation is expected to list on US markets within days and Mr Hay said it would focus on minerals linked to the adoption of electric vehicles and batteries, as well as those dubbed “critical” by the US government.
That means the company will be looking for lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite, nickel, manganese and rare earths.
While the mining of such commodities looms as an obvious focus, Mr Hay said the company would be open to investments in some chemical purification stages that follow the initial extraction of battery minerals.
“It will definitely concentrate on both what we would call the upstream, the resource in the ground, mining and concentrating, but also the midstream, so chemicals production,” he said.
“There is going to be a lot of build-out of the chemicals industry, chemical, anode and cell manufacturing, and that is a key focus area.”
A SPAC is a company that is listed on the stock market without an operating business at the time of listing, but raises money from investors on the promise that it will buy an unspecified asset within a designated sector within a limited time.
Low interest rates triggered a proliferation of SPACs in the US this year and Australian mining luminaries including former Northern Star chairman Bill Beament and former Fortescue boss Nev Power have been among those getting involved in SPACs focused on “future facing” commodities.
Global mining industry big guns like Sir Michael Davis and Robert Friedland have also shown interest in SPACs this year.
Under US rules, the proponents of a SPAC cannot formally approach acquisition targets before listing and Mr Hay said there was no shortage of good targets.
“We have a long list of at least 80 at the moment and we have certainly narrowed that down to probably more like 20, and by the time we get close to contacting the targets it will be more like five,” he said.
Exciting outlook
Swiss-based investor Pala Investments – well known to small miners on the ASX – is also behind the SPAC, with commodity trader Traxys, which is controlled by American private equity giant The Carlyle Group.
Former Normandy Mining executive Greg Martyr will be chief executive, former Citi banker Kris Salinger the chief financial officer and Joshua Payne the chief operating officer.
Though Mr Hay said the company was attracted to most commodities within the battery minerals sector, he said he believed lithium had the most exciting outlook given it was growing from a smaller base than more established industries such as nickel and copper.
“I am biased but I would have to say lithium, the whole lithium industry is growing tenfold,” he said.
Orocobre was a bigger company than Galaxy and former Orocobre boss Martin Perez de Solay will continue to run the merged entity under its soon-to-be adopted name Allkem.
(20min delay)