The Contemporary Amperex Technology headquarters building in Ningde, Fujian province, China.
Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
The world’s largest maker of electric-vehicle batteries has agreed to buy Canadian miner Millennial Lithium in a move to bolster its supply of key mineral lithium.
Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (ticker: CATL) outbid rival Ganfeng Lithium
‘s (1772.HK) July C$353 million offer with its own C$376.8 million ($297.3 million) bid on Tuesday valued at C$3.85 per common share.
Millennial Lithium (ML.Canada) said in a statement the all-cash offer isn’t subject to a financing condition and is a “premium of approximately 6.9% to the price offered under the Ganfeng” agreement.
The statement went on: “Ganfeng elected not to exercise its right to match and, as a result, Millennial terminated the Ganfeng Arrangement Agreement …and entered into the CATL Arrangement Agreement.”
Lithium is a key component in the manufacture of batteries and CATL has been busy securing future supplies. It previously took stakes in Neo Lithium (NLC)—an Argentina-focused lithium company—and North American Nickel
(NAN.Canada), which is Greenland-focused, and Australian company Pilbara Minerals (PLS.Australia).
Back in June, CATL extended a battery-supply deal with Tesla (TSLA), according to Reuters. It reported CATL would supply battery cells to Tesla, which makes its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Shanghai, until December 2025.
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