Takeover target, page-10

Originally posted by ausheds
"total lack of anything out of Japan says it all"

Only thing that says it a total lack of understanding by the author, Japanese do NOT act in haste, certainly not without very clear justification. And direct action would be their least preferred option.

Look to JOGMEC's history, they've lost a massive amount of Govt funding with intn'l partners that have failed to deliver, to the point last I heard Lynas was the only investment that had in a meaningful way.

The Lynas relationship has been sorely tested, took enormous efforts to rebuild their trust over a number of years. The Japanese are very knowledgeable RE process and have been very involved in the complexities LAMP, they will not surrender that trust easily, particularly to a corporate raider.​

Some interesting speculation in SMH yesterday:

Lacaze prepares Lynas for more bids while Scott waits

Kylar Loussikian and Samantha Hutchinson
SMH April 24, 2019 — 12.00am

Like 450,000 tonnes of radioactive waste situated just metres from the South China Sea, the Lynas-Wesfarmers takeover tussle isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Wesfarmers’ $1.5 billion bid was made public on March 26, more than a month after the conglomerate’s managing director Rob Scott and Lynas chief executive Amanda Lacaze had held discussions about the possibility of a takeover.

When those talks fell apart Lynas decided there was “no reason to believe that Wesfarmers had an ongoing interest in the company”, allowing four of its directors to purchase shares in the rare earths mining company.
But now that she’s formally rejected Wesfarmers, is Lacaze now expecting another bid?

We think that’s exactly what she is preparing for. We’re told Lacaze has talked with Lynas' lawyers, King & Wood Mallesons, about taking any future bid to the Takeovers Panel on the basis that Wesfarmers breached confidentiality provisions in earlier talks.

Here we were thinking our conversations with Lynas’ spinner Jennifer Parker, over at Cannings Strategic Communications, were being copied in to her friends at KWM because our questions were so clever she needed to share them with her legal offsiders.

Taking another (potential) Wesfarmers approach to the Takeovers Panel would buy time for Lacaze to come up with a white knight strategic investor, most likely the Japanese conglomerate Sojitz, a major customer who with the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation provided a $US250 million loan to the company in 2011. Where that would leave other customers — perhaps worried about favourable treatment for a major rare earth miners rival turned significant Lynas shareholder?

Then there’s the next move for Scott and Wesfarmers. The rumour is Wesfarmers’ bankers at UBS once considered the possibility of tying Lynas up with the $3.9 billion mineral sands outfit Iluka Resources. If that were to happen, Scott would likely find himself face-to-face with an old Wesfarmers face, Iluka chief Tom O’Leary, the former head of the conglomerate’s chemicals and energy division.