Daily Brief Energy/Materials: Livent, United States Steel, Vedanta Resources, Pan American Silver and more

• Yesterday during the day, Allkem Ltd (AKE AU) shareholders approved the Scheme and Livent (LTHM US) shareholders approved the merger. The deal is done. Allkem last trades 21 Dec.
• NEWCO starts trading 4 January in the US but the Arcadium Lithium CDIs start trading 22 Dec in Australia. S&P/ASX announced they will replace Allkem in the ASX200.
• But I have been asked for a breakdown of flows and timing again, so I have put it into a handy table which I hope makes it less confusing.

• Nippon Steel Corporation (5401 JP) and United States Steel (X US) have agreed an all-cash $55.00/share offer, 142% premium to where X traded before Cliff’s approach, a very generous 7x EV/24e EBITDA.
• A determined buyer seeks market share in the lucrative US market, with no meaningful synergies expected and willingness to keep all US Steel jobs and (greener) growth projects.
• Although unions and some lawmakers are voicing concerns, CFIUS shouldn’t pose a big hurdle. Spread is 12.04%/17.93% (gross/annualised, assuming late settlement by end of Q3 2024). Long.

Vedanta Resources (VRL) has launched a consent solicitation for an extensive liability management exercise. The company is seeking consent from noteholders of its four bonds to extend the maturities of three of the bonds (the January 2024, August 2024 and 2025 notes) to 2027-2028. There will be no haircut on the principal, and the coupon for the August 2024 notes and 2025 notes will be increased to match that of the January 2024 notes.

In our opinion, the terms of the proposal are mixed and the timeline is very tight. Failure to receive the requisite consent may lead to the company defaulting on the January 2024 notes. The new financing cannot be used to repay the January 2024 notes if the liability management exercise does not go through. In this case, there would be no time for VRL to come up with a revised proposal before the maturity of the January 2024 notes.

We acknowledge the company’s efforts in terms of the improved security packages and higher coupons. We recommend that noteholders accept the proposal and provide consent.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the La Colorada Skarn project, confirming its potential to become a large-scale operation producing an average 17.2Moz of silver per annum over the first 10 years of its 17-year mine life. At a base case throughput rate of 50ktpd, the company estimates the project’s post-tax NPV8 at US$1.1bn, with an IRR of 14% and a payback period of 4.3 years. We intend to update our valuation shortly to incorporate the PEA and the prevailing stronger than expected gold and silver prices.