Member Info for BorderBob

In June 2017, Imagination Technologies' board announced it was putting the entire company up for sale, but it was not until September 25, 2017, that they announced the company was being acquired by Canyon Bridge, a private equity fund ultimately owned by the Chinese government. Only two months later, in November 2017 the sale to Canyon Bridge was approved.

So find another example, or stop spreading the fake news about Chinese deals always resulting in delays.

Does anyone have an example of other completed Chinese takeovers of publicly-held British companies? Ten people telling each other that it takes too long, doesn’t make it true.

I found the case of British Steel, in receivership, for which the government encouraged the takeover starting in November 2019. It was completed in March 2020.

Thank you, jam2morrow. I plead ignorance heretofore of the situation involving COE, former CEO, and the claim by the Orr-E. family to some of the Bacanora Ore. My research into the court proceedings of the Canadian province named after Victoria's fourth daughter has led me to believe that the decision is "imminent" pending outcome of the Jarndyce case in England.

They'll publish unpaid submissions from anyone, to get clicks. But you have to wonder if that guy is even talking about the same company.

I still don't know what you're talking about with the COE case -- is it their pension board's involvement in the Exxon shareholder action? (Except they are no longer shareholders there.) Jam2morrow's reference to them as "stakeholders" does test my knowledge of history, because it invokes images of their involvement in burning witches at the stake. But that's historically incorrect -- they used the gallows for witches. And when my country was a British colony, it was the dissident Puritans who were involved in that.

@mrcautious Show me a communication that shows they inend "to provide their unanimous, unqualified and unconditional recommendation to Bacanora Shareholders to vote in favour of the Scheme at the Court Meeting and the Resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting (having been advised by Bacanora's financial advisers that the financial terms of the Offer are fair and reasonable)." That's one of the conditions in the May 6 announcement. And of course we don't know what the financial advisers are saying. Were all of the Independent Directors pleased with the proposal? If so, could they have mentioned that in the announcement? Must all Board votes be unanimous?

One of the conditions of accepting the offer is the unanimous consent of the BCN independent directors. Without knowing where they all stand, let's just continue condemning them anyway.

@jam2morrow "I did wonder if an 'imminent' court decision on the COE case might be stretching this out."

What does the Church of England have to do with a mine in Mexico?

In its June 22, 2021 update, BCN management reported:

“With early site work ongoing, site works for bulk earthworks, civil engineering, and pouring foundations have been rescheduled to Q4, 2021, in the light of current lock-down and travel restrictions. By extending these work rosters, the Company hopes to provide more time for contractors to be on-site whilst enabling camp accommodation optimisation to ensure room sizes and staffing levels meet the new COVID-19 distancing requirements.”

So, what are those current lock-down and travel restrictions?

“Mexico is open to travelers. There is no need to provide a negative PCR test or quarantine on arrival, though most resorts ask guests to fill out health questionnaires. The land border between Mexico and the United States is closed for nonessential travel through at least August 21. However, air travel is allowed.” [Source: CNN]

Mexico has a four-tier traffic light system of restrictions, with red signifying maximum restrictions, orange limiting capacity in public spaces and at work to 30%, yellow allowing for all work to resume and public gatherings to take place, and green meaning there are no restrictions in place. Sonora is coded yellow.

Recent reports from Sonora indicate as many as 400 new Covid cases reported daily. Sonora’s population is 3 million, so this is about 13 cases per 100,000. In comparison, the UK is reporting about 45 new cases per day per 100,000 population.

Is it the British who have shut down work at Bacanora? Or is it the Chinese? And is that why they are in no hurry to buy a ship that is dead in the water?

I have an idea. Let’s ship several thousand tons of Bacanora clay to London, and dump it near Marble Arch. Then let’s charge £8 for people to come “Mine Your Own Lithium.” They can take home all they can carry in a Morrisons bag. All proceeds will benefit shareholders who missed out on profits from almost any other lithium mining stock from May to August.

I closed out my position earlier this week for an average price of 62p equivalent on the U.S. OTC market. I’ll stay around here, though, to collect insults and watch for the shares to drop to 40p when the deal falls through. Meanwhile, five of my lithium stocks were up more than 5% today.

Ganfeng has all the financing and government approval in place. As the latest delay confirms, "The Possible Offer remains subject to certain other pre-conditions as set out in the announcement on 6 May 2021, including in particular the Due Diligence Pre-Condition."

I am seeing dozens of trades at 11:00:57, most of them for less than 100 shares and many for less than 10. Any explanation of what is happening? It seems to hide the trades earlier this morning, all on the Sell side.

Ganfeng is the Chinese cat toying with the British mouse. Progress is at a standstill in Sonora, so why should anything move forward in London? The more that BCN depletes its cash reserves, the less attractive it is to another potential bidder. It's hilarious that Ganfeng needs to do more "due diligence" about a project it controls. If they still have doubts about its investment value, why are so many shareholders still convinced?

Old news from a stock tout. Newer news:

A petition calling for a ban on Rio Tinto's Jadar lithium mine project and associated metal processing complex in the Jadar Valley because of pollution concerns has garnered more than 110,400 signatures in Serbia by June 10.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/061021-opposition-to-rio-tintos-jadar-lithium-project-gains-momentum-in-serbia

The Chinese may be buying technology here, although your iPhone comes from Shenzhen, not Swansea. In the case of BCN, they are selling technology to a company that has no idea how to extract lithium from clay.

@nolondon1234 The lesson for BCN investors (well, any investors) is from Bloomberg columnist Matt Levin, who writes: All of these companies, in their disclosures to foreign investors, include risk factors about how the legal status of their VIE structures is uncertain and how the Chinese government might decide that they are in violation of the law and impose all sorts of remedies, like “confiscating any of our income that they deem to be obtained through illegal operations” or “revoking the business and operating licenses of our PRC subsidiaries or consolidated affiliated entities.” In a sense there is nothing surprising here; the boom in foreign investment in Chinese tech companies has been entirely a creature of regulatory grace that might end at any time. People got used to the grace, though. Now it might be ending.

The complaints about Ganfeng in 2021 have roots in what BCN allowed Ganfeng to do years ago. It was no secret, though. Investors simply chose to ignore the obvious: When Ganfeng became the only major that might take over a semi-captive junior, how much did that devalue the property? Possession of money does not guarantee possession of reason. Emotions run rampant, and the country with more EV's will do what it takes to keep building them.

@Bonkers0801 I sold some of my BCN shares today for 64p. The price of the US OTC version reached 88 cents. Probably should have sold all of them, but then I wouldn't have as much fun watching the tragicomedy.

It must embarass Dee to have support from those who sling insults while exhibiting ignorance.

@jam2morrow Even if the 75% test is met, which counts shares; the 50% plus one test must also be met, which counts shareholders, whether they own 10 or 10,000 shares. The broker can vote all the shares, but still counts as only one shareholder. (There was some discussion of this in a Unilever attempted takeover, a few years ago.)

But the "scheme of arrangement" route to a takeover is just one of two methods. The other is to make a "contractual offer," which can specify that a certain percentage of shares must sign up. I think Ganfeng could just buy shares on the exchange at that point, also. They just have to pay everyone, the highest price they pay anyone. And they have to reach 90% before they can force the rest to sell. Once they reach 51% of shares, though, they don't have to worry about some other miner trying to acquire control of the BCN half of the project. Is that their major concern?

The only strategy that will defeat Ganfeng is collecting enough small investors who do not hold their shares in nominee form (what in the U.S. is known as “street name,” for brokerage accounts) that the 50% numerosity requirement is not met.

I’m assuming that the organizations that give advice on such strategies – for example, ShareSoc and UKSA – have pointed this out to the opposition.

I’m also assuming that Ganfeng is able to track changes in the shareholder register, and can spot a trend of increasing numbers of small accounts.

So, if they suspect that too many small shareholders will show up at a “Court meeting” and defeat their “scheme of arrangement” offer, what do they do?

1) Walk away and figure half a loaf and 28% of the rest is good enough.

2) Make an offer that doesn’t require a majority of all shareholders – but doesn’t give them the whole company until they can accumulate 90% of the shares.

An offer to buy as many shares as tendered, at 67.5p or a lower price, can be done now that they have their own shareholder and government approval. It seems fairly certain that they would end with at least 50%+ of the BCN shares, allowing them to control management. If the faithful want to hold on to their shares, even with no prospect of dividends because profits could just be invested in other mines, then what is the harm to Ganfeng?

They were buying it, for example, on May 25 for .55236 per share. That's a profit of 8.6% in less than two months.