Administration and Business

Engineering in Business Administration

BUSINESS NEWS

Reading for Business English

UNIT 2:
Reading Comprehension Techniques Applied to Specific English

Subject: Reading for Business English

Section: 205 - A

Teacher's Name: Silvana Cartagena

Student's name: Cristian Calderón Muñoz

Thursday, 18th October, 2018

Fecha de entrega
 BUSINESS NEWS
Chinese giant lithium company acquires 24% of SQM for more than US $ 4,000 million 1.

SANTIAGO.- Tianqi Lithium, a Chinese private company that trades on the Shenzhen stock
exchange and has more than 20 years of experience in the lithium industry, announced on
Thursday that it signed an agreement to acquire approximately 24% of the Chemical and Mining
Company of Chile. (SQM) owned by Nutrien, at a price of US $ 65 per share.

The transaction involves the purchase of 62,556,568 shares of the SQM Series A owned by Nutrien
for a total of US $ 4,066 million. Nutrien maintains the ownership of 20,166,319 Series B shares of
SQM that it plans to sell on its occasion.

The acquisition will be financed in full by Tianqi Lithium through own funds and bank loans. Once
materialized, Tianqi Lithium will reach a non-controlling position in SQM, from which it relies on
collaborating with the company's management to boost the growth of SQM.

According to the company in a statement, the agreement is subject to the usual closing conditions
in transactions of this nature, including regulatory approvals and the favorable vote of the
shareholders of Tianqi Lithium, with the operation expected to be completed in the fourth quarter
of this year. year.

The president of Tianqi Lithium, Vivian Wu, said that "we are excited to be part of the present and
future development of the lithium industry in Chile, and as future shareholders of SQM, we are
committed to working with the board to continue supporting the continued growth of In addition,
the shareholders of Tianqi Lithium will benefit from this transaction given the stable returns and
dividends of SQM. "

"We hope to achieve a close relationship with the other SQM shareholders in the short term and
develop a fruitful relationship to continue supporting the local communities and t he future
development of SQM," he added.

For this transaction, Tianqi was advised by Morgan Stanley LLC as financial consultant, Weil,
Gotshal & Manges LLP as legal counsel in New York and Carey y Cía. as a Chilean legal advisor.

¿Possible monopoly in lithium?

Controversy before eventual sale of important percentage of SQM to Chinese company.

As a threat to free competition. This is how Eduardo Bitran, former vice president of Corfo, sees
the possible purchase of 32 percent of SQM by the Chinese company Tianqi.

This is because, in his opinion, the sale of this important percentage would deprive our country of
taking important economic advantages, considering that Chile owns 52 percent of the planet's
lithium carbonate reserves, material of which the batteries are composed of this type of vehicles2 .

1
Source: Emol.com - https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2018/05/17/906481/Empresa -china-de-
litio-adquiere-el-24-de-SQM-a-US65- por-accion.html
2
CCN CHILE - https://www.cnnchile.com/economia/posible-monopolio-en-el-litio_20180412/