Chariot Corp kicks off IPO capital raise; eyes October listing

afr.com:

Say hello to the ASX’s newest lithium explorer.

A lithium mine in Western Australia. 

Street Talk understands Chariot Corp kicked off its mooted initial public offering on Tuesday, booking in fund manager meetings and tapping investors for $15.5 million in fresh equity.

The IPO capital raise, priced at 45¢ per share, is expected to get the US-focused lithium explorer through the next 12 to 18 months of drilling, with drill results expected by the end of the calendar year.

Chariot owns the largest known lithium exploration land holding in the US. Its flagship assets are the Resurgent claystone lithium project spanning northern Nevada and southern Oregon and the Black Mountain hardrock project in central Wyoming.

The Resurgent project neighbours with NYSE-listed miner Lithium Americas Corp’s Thacker Pass which received a $US650 million ($998 million) equity investment from General Motors in January.

Chariot Corp has appointed Wilsons and Jett Capital Advisors as joint lead managers for the capital raise and bookbuild, expected to close on September 14. Jett will handle North America while Wilsons is coordinating Australia and Asia.

The ASX aspirant’s chief executive and chief geologist are scheduled to kick off an IPO roadshow across New York and the east coast of Australia on Thursday. ASX quotation is set for early October with an expected market capitalisation of $74.3 million.

Chariot would be hoping to emulate the access of Iris Metals which relisted on June 20 and is up around 70 per cent. Evergreen Lithium has laid out a less desirable path,rocketing 18 per cent on day one of its ASX listing but is today trading flat.