Hancock Prospecting becomes Vulcan Energy’s 2nd largest shareholder at 7.5%

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting (HP) has picked up a further $20.3M stake in Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) through acquiring €12.5M (A$20.3M) in VUL shares.

This brings HP’s total stake in Vulcan to 7.5%, making the company the latter’s second largest shareholder.

The latest top-up investment from HP comes in alongside a A$65M investment from international engineering giant CIMIC and an entity called Victor Smorgon group pitched in just over A$4M.

All three parties were participating in a Vulcan-led private placement. Alongside HP moving to the position of second largest, CIMIC has now become a substantial Vulcan shareholder.

Shares were issued at a price of A$4.08ea, a 9% discount to the stock’s 30 day average at the time.

Money received is going towards early-stage engineering works under binding contracts, and, procuring long-lead items. Those works will be carried out in part by CIMIC.

“We warmly welcome CIMIC Group in becoming a substantial shareholder and are excited about the increased investment by our long-term shareholder Hancock Prospecting,” Vulcan CEO Cris Monero said.

“Both parties have demonstrated experience in the delivery of globally significant, major projects and are eminently complementary to Vulcan’s strategy of producing Europe’s first sustainable battery-grade lithium products.”

VUL last traded at $4.74/sh.