Canada-based Lithium Americas has made an offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Millennial Lithium for nearly $400m.
According to the ‘unconditional offer’, Millennial Lithium shareholders will be entitled to receive $3.79 (C$4.70) for each share held, which will include Lithium Americas common shares and $0.00081 (C$0.001) in cash.
Go deeper with GlobalData
This would allow Millennial shareholders to hold a 9.9% interest in the Canadian mining firm.
In September 2021, Millennial Lithium received a $297m (C$377m) all-cash takeover offer from Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), an electric-vehicle battery manufacturer.
Millennial Lithium’s board of directors has now determined that the offer from Lithium Americas is a ‘superior proposal’, compared to that of CATL.
CATL has a timeline of 16 November to revise its takeover offer for Millennial Lithium in order to match the proposal from Lithium Americas.
Subject to certain conditions, Lithium Americas will reimburse a $20m termination fee to Millennial if the latter terminates the deal with CATL.
Lithium Americas president and CEO Jonathan Evans said: “In proximity to Caucharí-Olaroz, Millennial’s 100%-owned Pastos Grandes lithium brine project represents an attractive regional growth opportunity for Lithium Americas.
“As we bring Caucharí-Olaroz into production over the next year and continue to advance our Stage 2 expansion planning, the addition of this highly complementary lithium brine resource further enhances our long-term growth strategy in Argentina and leverages our technical and development expertise.”
Prior to CATL’s offer, Millennial Lithium received a takeover bid from Chinese lithium metals producer Ganfeng Lithium.
It offered a price of $2.9 (C$3.6) per share or around $284.8m (C$353m) in cash to acquire the firm.
However, Millennial terminated its arrangement with Ganfeng Lithium after receiving CATL’s non-binding proposal in September.
