Hey Galaxians, @Thesi and @maxi1981. Congrats on seeing the deal...

Hey Galaxians, @Thesi and @maxi1981.

Congrats on seeing the deal closed. The markets lacklustre response just goes to show how much lithium pessimism is in control right now.

If a big pile of cash raining down on the company won't get it's market cap moved up, what will?

Anyway, if the company looks cheap to us, you can bet it looks cheap to professionals, so fair enough for the crew to be wondering about a takeover. For the record, I don't see any signs that the GXY management are interested in one, as they seem focused on following through on plans, but let's explore the hypothetical anyway.

As for what would happen to Lepidico....

The short answer:

I can't say. Probably not a lot.

The long answer:

Trying to predict a takeover of GXY is hard enough, let alone trying to extrapolate that further to figure out what would happen to LPD. We're dealing with a lot of supposition and inference here.

What happens to LPD would be determined by the motives and the strategy of the parties involved in the takeover.

Of the top of my head, I can think of three different types of companies that might be able to put forward a bid: an auto manufacturer, a traditional miner and/or an existing lithium heavyweight.

Each of those has different strategic reasons for chasing GXY; the auto manufacturer would want surety of supply, while the traditional miner and existing lithium heavyweight are looking to diversify their assets. The traditional miner wants a piece of an expanding industry while the existing heavyweight wants to use their expertise to unlock value in projects.

So then you have to ask what each of their attitudes would be to LPD? Some examples of how they might differ:

Auto manufacturer - As they're only interested in securing supply, they are risk averse with regards to this type of processing tech. They're curious to see if it works, but not keen on tipping any extra money in until they see proper results, ie P1 operating at full capacity.

Traditional miner - They've got hard rock exploration, mining and metallurgy experience, so they're more comfortable with the tech, which is not groundbreaking in other mining industries, and possibly willing to throw a little bit of money at it, to see if it unlocks plenty more value

Lithium heavyweight - They know the ins-and-outs of the industry and know that there is a lot of work to be done in improving mining yields. They're interested in the tech and possibly willing to add money into LPD in future CRs. Maybe they even love it so much, they buy LPD while it is cheap as well?

Again, this is all supposition, as there are too many variables here to go on. I would say the most likely outcome for LPD if GXY was taken over, were that to ever happen, is that LPD keeps plugging away and doing what they're doing.

I would only be nervous about a takeover of LPD if the likes of SQM or Albemarle were sniffing around GXY.

Or POSCO. They seem to be flinging around plenty of cash at the moment. Though it doesn't seem likely that they'll buy GXY after just having bought one of their assets.

Anyway, just my idle speculation.

Cheers