So coming back to the ' Timeline ' of expectations surrounding the ' Close ' and final blessing's from Quebec and Canada on the acquisition of the North American Lithium ( NAL ) operation.
And so I'll kick off the analysis based on Sayona's own announcement as per below italics :-
22 June 2021
"In addition to the approval of the Court, the transaction is subject to all necessary approvals under theASX Listing Rules, clearances required under the Competition Act (Canada) and Investment Canada Act(Canada) and other customary closing conditions. "
So before we get started , I reckon it would be best to remember in the back of your minds the following names and look for them in any press releases announced virtually anytime from now. The names are as follows :-
- Mr. Mathew Boswell
-The Honorable Mrs Mary Ng
-Mrs Katie Curran
I say remember and look for them because Mr Boswell is the Head Commissioner of the Competition Bureau and who oversees and is in charge of compliance with the ' Competition Act ' . As such he or one of his fellow associate deputy's along with their press secretaries would most likely be commenting on the sign off of the NAL approval.
Then there is of course Katie Curran who is currently the interim CEO of Invest in Canada HUB which has its mandate and is responsible for reporting and administering its activities under the auspices of the regulatory Act of " Investment Canada Act ' .
So along with Katie who reports directly to the Honorable Mrs Mary Ng who is the Federal Liberal Minister for small business , export promotion, and international trade and who presides over the decisions made by the Investment Act of Canada. So we might hear some statement from her through her Parliamentary Secretary Rachel Bendayan.
It will depend of course whether anything to do with the close formalities require anything whatsoever to do with formal Ministerial Approval - in which case the Canadian House of Commons do not resume their parliamentary session in any manner until Monday the 20th September with the senate members not returning to their sessions until Tuesday 21st September.
And we already know that the Quebec national assembly does not return to their sessions until Tuesday the 14th of September with their Labour Day Holiday being held on Monday 6th September in Quebec as well as across the entire nation.
Despite this , I if it doesn't require formal ministerial approvals and / or house or senate approval , I see no reason that Mary cannot sign off on it as it was only a month ago or so that she was in Washington meeting with her counterparts on trade and which was also outside of her normal parliamentary sitting times.
So we need to keep these dates , these people , and these bodies in mid when we are preempting the next official news emanating from Canada.
As an example , you can see by the very latest Competition Commission file where they made their ' Public ' comments on 5th August. You can also see by their madate that they try to speed matters along as best they can given whatever the circumstances are. In the case of Sayona , my thinking is it is not that complicated from a competition or lessening of competition point of view and will be cleared in relatively quick time-frames and without any complications.
August 5, 2021– GATINEAU, QC – Competition Bureau
The Competition Bureau has obtained court orders to advance its review of the proposed acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. by Rogers Communications Inc.
The orders granted by the Federal Court of Canada on July 26, 2021 and August 1, 2021, require Xplornet Communications Inc. (Xplornet), BCE Inc. (Bell), TELUS Corporation (Telus) and Quebecor Inc. (Vidéotron), to produce records and written information related to mobile wireless services that are relevant to the Bureau’s investigation.
The Bureau’s review of the proposed transaction is ongoing.
(20min delay)