The below was reported in the AFR. PLS just went into trading halt, so they may be acquiring it.
Pilbara Minerals and Galaxy Resources have rushed straight to Altura Mining's lender group to try and stitch up a snap deal to acquire the embattled lithium play.Altura's Pilgangoora lithium mine in Western Australia.
Altura MiningSources told Street Talk the two companies had been in talks with Altura's loan note holders – the group that appointed KordaMentha as Altura's receivers on Monday – to try and nut out a quickfire deal.Pilbara shapes as the frontrunner in the race and has always been a logical acquirer of Altura, given its lithium project is directly adjacent to Altura's in Pilgangoora, near Port Hedland in Western Australia.
However if it did snap it up, fund managers reckon it would need to launch a hefty equity raising to fund the deal, somewhere in the order of $250 million. Pilbara had $83 million cash on hand as of June this year.It would be the perfect bait and switch for Pilbara.
Investors are already up to date with Altura and its project, thanks to an extensive marketing schedule by Altura and its advisers Azure and Canaccord Genuity in the past couple of weeks.Altura's camp were intending to get their own $150 million-plus equity raising done, before the company's lenders took control of the situation by appointing KordaMentha as receiver.
