Ann: Trading Halt, page-118

Market darling Azure Minerals has gone into a trading halt on the back of a potential takeover, less than two weeks after major shareholder Mark Creasy topped up his stake.

Azure went into a halt on Monday regarding “a potential change of control transaction”.

The West Australian understands Mr Creasy is not behind the takeover offer, but he will be the kingmaker in any deal going ahead, with Azure’s current market capitalisation hovering around $1.1 billion.

The lithium hopeful previously announced in mid-August that it knocked back a $901 million bid from Chilean industry giant SQM, describing the bid as “ underdone”.

The SQM bid was lobbed on July 12, valuing Azure’s shares at $2.31 each. The company last traded at $2.44 on Friday, with its shares having surged 687 per cent in the past 12 months, and over tenfold since June last year.

Instead of grabbing the SQM offer Azure instead opted to tap investors for $120m later in August to accelerate the development of its flagship Andover project.

A research note from Argonaut last month suggested that an SQM takeover of Azure is still on the cards via the Covalent Lithium joint venture between SQM and Wesfarmers.

Covalent operates the $2.6b Mt Holland mine in the Goldfields and is developing the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery.

“We speculate the JV could be expanded through shared acquisition of Andover,” the research note stated.

The West Pilbara-based Andover project is prospective for a bevy of battery metals encompassing lithium, nickel, copper and cobalt. Azure has a 60 per cent stake in Andover, with the remaining 40 per cent owned by Mr Creasy’s other key investment vehicle, the Creasy Group.

Filings to the Australian Securities Exchange on October 13 revealed that Mr Creasy’s Yandal Investments acquired $16m of Azure shares to take its shareholding from 12.1 per cent to 13.2 per cent.

The shares were acquired at an average of about $2.40 per share and further cemented the billionaire prospector’s position as Azure’s major shareholder.

The takeover speculation comes amid a flurry of M&A activity in the WA lithium space, which has been led by billionaires Gina Rinehart and Chris Ellison.

Mrs Rinehart recently built a blocking stake for a $6.6 billion bid for Liontown Resources from Albermarle, while speculation is mounting that Chris Ellison will be snapping up Wildcat Resources shares, which have skyrocketed from 3 cents to 57¢ in the space of a year.