Northern Graphite Corporation (NGC) which has a large scale development projects, Okanjande in Namibia, has signed an agreement to acquire an ownership interest in NeoGraf Solutions.
Northern signed the agreement with Edgewater Capital Partners, a Cleveland-based, sector-focused private equity firm.
NeoGraf is a leading provider of specialty products manufactured from natural graphite and has a strong intellectual property portfolio and a blue-chip customer base. NeoGraf is one of Northern’s largest customers.
This investment will give Northern the opportunity to integrate downstream into the manufacturing of graphite products for a number of high-growth markets, including lithium-ion batteries/EVs, fuel cells, graphene and nano-materials, thermal management in consumer electronics, smart building products and fire retardants.
The agreement grants Northern a six-month option to acquire an effective 50.1% voting interest and a 33.3% equity interest in NeoGraf. The company also has the option to increase its interest up to 100 per cent at a later date, subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement.
Closing of Northern’s investment is subject to the execution of definitive agreements, the receipt of all required third-party and regulatory approvals, including, if applicable, approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and to Northern completing satisfactory financing arrangements.
“The NeoGraf transaction is a major step toward integrating downstream to capture a greater share of the value chain and creating an industry-leading mine-to-market natural graphite company with the ambition to produce low carbon footprint products,†noted Hugues Jacquemin, Northern’s CEO.
“The combination of Edgewater’s performance materials expertise and our knowledge of the graphite industry will help enable NeoGraf to achieve its full growth potential,†he added.
“We are very excited to partner with Hugues and the Northern team whose investment in NeoGraf clearly demonstrates its ‘mine-to-market’ strategy and enhances the security of supply and value that NeoGraf provides to its blue-chip customer base,†said Robert Girton, a Partner at Edgewater.
Northern Graphite is a Canadian company focused on becoming a world leader in producing natural graphite and upgrading it into high-value products critical to the green economy.
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