Huayou Cobalt

Canaccord Genuity Acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Huayou Cobalt on its US$422 Million Acquisition of the Arcadia Lithium Project in Zimbabwe

Canaccord Genuity is pleased to announce that on December 22, 2021, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd. (“Huayou” or the “Company”) (SHSE: 603799) announced that they entered into share sale agreements whereby Huayou will acquire 100% of the Arcadia Lithium Project (“Arcadia”) from Prospect Resources Ltd. (“Prospect”) (ASX: PSC, FRA:5E8) and other minority shareholders for US$422 million in cash consideration. Canaccord Genuity acted as exclusive financial advisor to Huayou.

Under the terms of the share sale agreements, Huayou will acquire an 87% interest in Arcadia from Prospect for ~US$378 million in cash and the remaining 13% interest from local minority shareholders for ~US$44 million in cash. The Arcadia project is located near Harare, Zimbabwe and represents a globally significant hard rock lithium resource and one of the most advanced lithium projects globally, with an Optimised Definitive Feasibility Study completed.

Huayou is a leading Chinese new energy materials producer listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of US$22 billion. The Company has three major business segments: (1) research, development, and production of cathode materials (2) research, development and production of precursor (3) development of EV metals resources. Huayou continues to execute on its proactive business development strategy to build a new energy materials business division, which includes the provision of significant investments in the lithium resources sector.

This transaction is a significant global lithium M&A transaction that showcases Canaccord Genuity’s strength in the booming battery materials sector and its global metals and mining capabilities. 

The Canaccord Genuity team included Eric Zou, Christian Calabrese, Alex Liu, Haiting Wang, Tom Wambeek and Finlay Montgomery from Investment Banking