Arcadium Lithium shareholders approve $6.7 billion Rio Tinto deal

(Reuters) -Arcadium Lithium said on Monday its shareholders have voted in favor of a $6.7 billion sale to Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

Shares of Arcadium Lithium rose about 7% in extended trading after the company said that about 98% of its shareholders had voted in favor of the sale.

The deal, expected to close in mid-2025, will catapult Rio Tinto to the world’s third-largest lithium miner position, just behind Albemarle and SQM.

Arcadium is facing legal hurdles, as some shareholders have filed lawsuits against it alleging misrepresentation, concealment and negligence regarding the takeover deal, the company revealed in a regulatory filing earlier this month.

Earlier this year, Rio Tinto said it would pay $5.85 per share in cash for Arcadium, nearly a 90% premium to the stock’s closing price on Oct. 4, the day Reuters exclusively reported a potential deal.

The Australian miner will gain access to Arcadium’s lithium mines, processing facilities and deposits in Argentina, Australia, Canada and the United States as well as customers including Tesla, BMW and General Motors.

(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Vijay Kishore and Shinjini Ganguli)