How important lithium mines are to the production of electric vehicle batteries can be seen earlier in BYD’s Lithium Mining Rights Hit Hard by Chilean Government.
Tianqi Lithium Corp. is a Chinese mining and manufacturing company based in Sichuan, China. The company controls more than 46% of the global production of lithium in 2018. It is regarded as the most famous lithium supplier in the world.
According to people familiar with the matter, Tianqi Lithium has selected several banks for a possible listing in Hong Kong in mid-2022. Tianqi Lithium is working with CICC, Morgan Stanley and China Merchants Bank International on a public offering that could help raise between $1 billion and $2 billion U.S. dollars.
As soon as the news came out, shares of the company rose as much as 3.7% on Friday in Shenzhen, the biggest intraday gain in more than a week.
Tianqi Lithium Corp. owns the Mining right of lithium all over the world. In 2018, Tianqi acquired a 24% stake in the Chilean mining company Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) for approximately $4.1 billion. Tianqi is currently in a legal dispute with MSP Engineering over the payment for building the lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana, Western Australia.
It is worth mentioning that Tianqi Lithium applied for a listing in Hong Kong in 2018, but the plummeting lithium price and the shrinking cash flow after the acquisition of a 24% stake in Sociedad Química y Minera for $4 billion U.S. dollar forced the company to postpone the plan.
But the company’s performance has gradually improved as lithium prices have nearly tripled in the past year. Tianqi Lithium’s share price has more than doubled since March last year, helped by a global push for electric vehicles that has also pushed As demand for lithium increased, thus the company restarted its listing plan.
