...Tim Goyder could be in Bahamas now if it wasn't for Gina. He...

...Tim Goyder could be in Bahamas now if it wasn't for Gina. He wouldn't need to worry about escalating capex, operational delays and what would happen to the EV scene in an uncertain world. That could have been ALB's problem. With LTR stock price now no longer under the protection of a takeover bid, it is showing signs of winding down further its valuation.

...Tony R however has learnt fast and as the headline says, ensures that this AZS deal will progress.

Azure tries to Rinehart-proof its lithium deal

Lessons have been learnt from Liontown Resources’ blown takeover and funding scramble.
Updated Oct 26, 2023 – 2.55pm,first published at 2.11pm

Only one week after Liontown Resources shareholders saw their rollicking $6.6 billion payday go up in smoke, next lithium cab off the rank Azure Minerals has gone one step further to ensure shareholders can get a piece of its $1.63 billion deal.
How? Azure has added some billionaire-buying protection.
Its friendly deal with Chilean group SQM is back-stopped by a conditions-lite takeover offer at a slightly lower price.
So even if a billionaire was to buy a stake on a whim – just like Gina Rinehart did to help spoil Liontown’s deal last week or Chris Ellison has done at a handful of juniors – and spoils the proposed scheme of arrangement, shareholders should still be able to get their Chilean payday via an off-market takeover offer.


At worst, Azure investors should be looking at $3.50 a share.

At best, shareholders will get $3.52 under the scheme of arrangement, or more should another bidder pop out of the woodwork.
It is clever dealmaking from a company that is four or five years (or more) from production at its Andover Project in the Pilbara, and its suitor who identified the opportunity 12 months ago, dipped its toe in via a 19.9 per cent stake and is now going all-in.
It was also prescient. Because as soon as Azure Minerals shares resumed trading, stockbroker Euroz Hartleys was hoovering up big parcels of shares at the bid price. And the last time Euroz was buying like this was at Liontown, for Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.

The Liontown saga is fresh in everyone’s minds.

Liontown took SQM’s rival Albemarle for a full-course of due diligence, only for the suitor to flee and a mad scramble for funding. Rinehart buying a 19.9 per cent stake during the diligence period was a material factor.

Azure shares jumped to $3.50 on resumption of trading on Thursday – the backstopped price. It suggests there is more to play out. The volume suggests it a hungry mob like Rinehart’s Hancock.

It wraps up a huge 12 months for Azure and its shareholders. The company’s shares were trading at 28¢ this time last year, back before lithium exploration ramped up at Andover.

Since that ramp up – officially announced in November – it has had announcement after announcement of lithium intersections and drill results at Andover. SQM paid $20 million for a 19.9 per cent stake in January, and topped up at an equity raising in August.

The other major players include Mark Creasy’s Yandal Investments, which has a 13.2 per cent stake as well as 40 per cent of the Andover project, and Germany’s Delphi, which has pre-promised its 10.8 per cent holding into the deal.