Lithium miner Orocobre Ltd. has agreed to buy out Australian rival Galaxy Resources Ltd. in an all-stock deal, according to Orocobre’s press release.
- Orocobre will purchase all the shares in Galaxy, whose shareholders will receive 0.569 Orocobre shares for each stock.
- Shareholders of Orocobre will own majority of the combined group with 54.2%, while Galaxy shareholders will own the remaining 45.8%.
- The combined company will have a market value of $3.06 billion or 3.96 billion Australian dollars based on the companies’ closing share prices on Friday.
- The new firm will be the fifth-largest global lithium miner, to be led by Orocobre Chief Executive Martin Perez de Solay as CEO. Galaxy Chairman Martin Rowley will some as nonexecutive chairman.
- Analysts expect prices to rise sharply in the coming years on the back of demand for electric vehicles.