Good evening,

Liontown Resources was Tuesday’s bolt from the blue, attracting a bid from NYSE-listed lithium giant Albemarle.

There’s always plenty of hot air around Liontown. However, for once, the rumour of takeover interest was backed up by proof of three bids (and three rejections) from one of the sector heavyweights.

The bid couldn’t have come at a better time for Liontown, which only adds to the story. It has been hit by short sellers in the past two months, as have many of its lithium peers, putting pressure on the group as it heads towards production in 2024.

So when news of the $5.2 billion bid landed, Liontown shares raced. So too did the shares of other heavily shorted small-cap resources stocks. There were 20 small resources index members up more than 5 per cent on Tuesday.

As always, the question is what happens next. The fact Albemarle was interested raises questions about Rio Tinto (which has been considering its options in lithium) and fellow Australians Wesfarmers and IGO Ltd.

We also have a look at who is sitting on Liontown shares – and it’s mostly insiders and people in and around its chairman Tim Goyder.

Elsewhere, we got our hands on Redox’s IPO non-deal roadshow pitch, and look at Woolworths/Endeavour Group and United Malt.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors