(Reuters) -Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources on Monday said its suitor, U.S.-based Albemarle, has dumped a A$6.6 billion ($4.16 billion) buyout bid around “growing complexities” of the transaction.
Albemarle has withdrawn its indicative proposal, Liontown said in a statement.
Liontown last week granted the world’s biggest lithium chemical maker an extension to examine its books and enable Albemarle to put forward a binding offer.
The deal was dropped after Hancock Prospecting, a firm controlled by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, bought 19.9% of Liontown over the past few weeks.
That stake would likely have been enough to block the Albemarle bid.
Liontown went into trading halt just after making the announcement to the market, pending a finalisation of funding around the Kathleen Valley lithium project.
Hancock Prospecting did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
($1 = 1.5868 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler)
