Felipe Irarrazabal, head of the National Economic Prosecutor’s office, known by its Spanish initials FNE, met on March 29 with three lobbyists for the Chinese miner to discuss “Corfo’s complaint against Tianqi,” according to the website.
The meeting at the prosecutor’s downtown Santiago office came as the FNE reviewed a complaint filed by Chile development agency Corfo. The complaint seeks to block the sale by Canada’s Nutrien Ltd of a 32 percent stake in SQM to Chinese bidder Tianqi Lithium or any state-backed firm.
Tianqi in late 2017 presented a “non-binding” offer for the stake, according to Eduardo Bitran, former head of Corfo.
Chile’s development agency Corfo said in the March 9 complaint that the transaction would “gravely distort market competition.”
Together, Tianqi and SQM, the world’s second biggest lithium producer after U.S.-based Albemarle Corp, would control 70 percent of the global lithium market, the document said.
Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien must sell its stake in SQM by next March as part of pledges to regulators who approved this year the merger of Agrium and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, which created Nutrien. SQM also has significant fertilizer production.
Source: Reuters
