Looks like the uk gov are concerned Ofer ganfeng/bcn7 May 2021 20:31
Ministers have been urged to block China’s planned takeover of a British lithium miner as fears mount over Beijing’s grip on essential materials for electric cars.
Bacanora Lithium, which is listed in London, said it had received a £ 190million offer from its largest shareholder, China’s Ganfeng Lithium, which is already one of the world’s largest producers of the material.
Ganfeng controls 17.5% of Bacanora and announced in February its intention to increase this stake to almost 30%.
The cash offer for the remaining shares is 67.5 pence per share – a premium of almost 50 pc – and values ??Bacanora at over £ 250million.
Bacanora shares climbed nearly 30% to 57.9% on news of the offering, which its directors said they plan to recommend to shareholders.
But experts warned the potential takeover was “deeply concerning” and called on ministers to intervene immediately.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, said: “The government should now call it up and block it.
“China already has three quarters of the world’s rare earth minerals and an even larger share of their processing.
“Rare earth minerals like lithium are to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century and deals like this are about taking control of strategic materials to get the West to go to China for them.”
Sam Armstrong, of the Henry Jackson Society’s Foreign Policy Think Tank, added: “The National Security and Investment Act, which came into effect last week, allows ministers to block acquisitions that risk that hostile states take control of critical resources.
“There can be no better candidate for the first ministerial appeal under the new legislation than this deeply disturbing acquisition that risks ceding control of a critical resource of the future to a genocidal state.”
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