Ganfeng Lithium’s Hong Kong-based shareholders rebel

Aug 14, 2019 01:18 PM ET
  • Holders of almost two-thirds of the miner’s Hong Kong listed stock voted down a proposal to issue new non-Chinese shares that would dilute their investment by around a quarter. The board had proposed the move to raise funds for further lithium extraction overseas.
Ganfeng Lithium’s Hong Kong-based shareholders rebel
Image: sharonang/Pixabay
Chinese miner Ganfeng Lithium suffered a rebellion from its Hong Kong-based shareholders yesterday, who voted down a proposal to issue new overseas shares equivalent to almost a quarter of the existing stock.

Plans to issue new A shares and convertible bonds on the Shenzhen exchange were waved through by the holders of Chinese stock at a meeting in Xinyi but the holders of more than 65% of Hong Kong-listed H-shares in the company voted down a proposal to dilute their holding.

The board of the lithium miner had proposed issuing 50 million new H shares on top of the 200 million in issue, with 12.5 million of them to be offered to companies nominated by main shareholder Li Liangbin, who has a 20.87% holding in Ganfeng Lithium.

But the overseas stockholders vetoed the move, placing a question mark over the company’s plans to fund further overseas lithium extraction and on Ganfeng’s ability to meet Hong Kong listing requirements for a floated company, after the proposed issuance of convertible A share bonds is completed.

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