A comment posted on the PLL Earnings call. Decide for yourselves if he is FoS or reaasonable.
And who is Peter Epstein? Well just another Lithium analyst with a PoV I guess. I did post his article on Lithium plays (on Winsome) which was in Mar'23 and he has been referenced on SYA (one time), article was one Patriot in Dec'22.
PE did interview KP long ago (May 2018) when PLL was starting its Lithium journey.
That highlighted piece ... Mgmt would be mgmt of SYQ ... the JV (governed by the SA). This is (I believe) in reference to the uncontracted tonnage from NAL (don't forget, as the other half is already subject to ceiling and floor price as SYQ agreed to OTA with PLL).
This is what KP said on the call ... so for SYA posters (who really wouldn't read any of this) since y'all say he's FoS then DFRI
1) PROJECT LEVEL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES ... which means NON-RECOURSE TO THE PARENT COMPANY ... i.e. neither PLL nor SYA (probably not even SYQ) but at NAL level. The sole objective of this is the no longer require the partners to tip in further equity ... and if you are SYA then you breathe a sigh of relief as you need to tip in $3 for every $1 that PLL tips in
2. Further supporting that funding is at NAL is the stmt that "NAL is unencumbered" ... i.e. any new funder is first in line to lay claim to the asset IF NAL FAILS TO DELIVER ... they don't have to stand in line.
3. Debt = High Risk = Desperation and comes with covenants ... I'm sure JB would hate that ... now is probably not the time for Debt to get layered on top of NAL's balance sheet.
4. Royalty = Expensive Capital = and you'll pay that for LoM (free upside for the capital provider)
5. Offtake ... now if Atlantic can do it (well not finalized but moving ahead with stage-2 of bidders .... supposedly all agreed to make prepayment of $70M - $100M for 50% of Ewoyaa SC5.5) then surely NAL can get half that amount (Ewoyaa 50% is circa 170Ktpa). $50M tipped into NAL allevaites lots of pressure (like $12.5M for PLL and $37.5M for SYA)
I'd say the only debt owed would be to KP for shepherding it through (he is a banker (spelling?) after all).
(20min delay)