RE: VIS - Q for you this time , teehee17 Mar 2023 10:51
Morning MO
Q1. The threshold levels are determined by the number of shares in issue at the date concerned not a future date. This is because the future is uncertain.
Q2 Great question.
As Richard Williams of CUSN said recently, the hardest part of getting a mine up and running is raising the finance.
I am sure that J W of CL will be finding it the same. There is considerable uncertainty at the moment particularly about interest rates therefore the pricing for debt. i.e. perhaps debt has become more difficult and more equity may be needed in the finance mix. And neither CL nor TVL have been helped by the setback to the Lithium price either.
So my guess, and I emphasise guess, is that if JW can do a deal with ALK-TVL / BV he will. I guess it is less difficult to raise money for refining on Teeside than it is for CL in Cornwall. A deal with ALK-TVL might help CL save a considerable sum, and avoid a lot of dilution to JW and other shareholders. However, the difference would be that the profits from the refining would be captured by ALK-TVL not CL. it may just come down to which business is perceived as the better risk by/for lenders thus giving the lower finance cost. On that subject ALK-TVL would have a number of sources of raw material supply, easily deliverable to a port nearby. CL's supply would be its own. Would that be a lower cost supply than Spod from Aus? Not sure on that - you would have a much better idea. I will mull it over, but my guess is that ALK-TVL are better placed to get finance than CL, so better to have the refining capex done by them and for CL to be a supplier. There are probably a multitude of other considerations - like ALK-TVL being in a Freeport and having tax benefits, and ALK-TVL having a "plug and play" site which might get ALK-TVL to market/+ve cash flow quicker than CL, that need to be thought through.
Whether investors would invest in CL so CL can put money into a JV with ALK/TVL I doubt. An investor would probably want to invest direct and thus have more control over matters.
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