Wesfarmers has been unable to move forward with its proposed acquisition of Lynas Corp. and said it does not intend to pursue it further. During March, Wesfarmers made an unsolicited bid to acquire Lynas for A$2.25 a share, a bid that valued the company at A$1.5 billion. Lynas said the board evaluated the proposal and thought it was undervalued so rejected the offer.
Lynas is the largest rare earth metals producer outside of China. Wesfarmers operates the Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, which ships concentrate to Lynas’s processing facility in Malaysia.
Lynas processes the Central Lanthanide Deposit ore at the Mount Weld concentration plant to produce a rare earth concentrate that is sent for further refining at the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) near Kuantan, Malaysia. Recently, Lynas announced the Malaysian government renewed the operating license for the its LAMP facility. The company feared it would have to close the facility in September if an agreement was not reached.
