Allkem shareholders agree to $10.6bn Livent lithium merger

Shareholders at Australian lithium producer Allkem voted on Tuesday to accept a $10.6bn merger offer from US chemicals major Livent.

Almost 90% of the total votes were in favour of the deal going ahead, Allkem said in a company filing, according to Reuters. Last week, Livent said it had received the necessary regulatory approvals for the transaction.

If the all-stock deal goes through, it will form one of the biggest lithium companies in the world, set to be named Arcadium Lithium. An agreement between Allkem and Livent for the merger was first made in May this year.

Livent president and CEO Paul Graves said: “As a combined company, we will have the enhanced scale, product range, geographic coverage and execution capabilities to meet our customers’ rapidly growing demand for lithium chemicals.”

The newly formed company will own massive areas of land across major lithium producing nations including Australia, Argentina and Canada. It will also be involved in operations across the supply chain, from mining the critical mineral to delivering refined products to battery makers.

“It has been a tough year for the lithium industry,” Allkem chairman Peter Coleman said at the shareholder meeting in which votes for the deal were cast.

Under the deal, Allkem investors will each get one share in Arcadium Lithium to match their current shares and will own 56% of the new company. Livent shareholders will recieve 2.406 shares for each existing share, with plans to instate Graves as head of Arcadium Lithium.

Agreement for the merger was initially recommended in a report from financial adviser Kroll, advice that was later echoed by other major proxy advisor companies.

Arcadium will become the third-biggest producer of lithium in the world, behind US giant Albemarle and Chile’s SQM.