Mitsubishi acquires tungsten unit from Masan Group for $134.5 mln

Masan High-Tech Materials (MHT) Group, the mining arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Group, has entered into an agreement to offload its tungsten powder unit to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC) Group.

In a Thursday announcement, Masan said MMC Group will acquire 100% of H.C. Starck Holding (Germany) GmbH (HCS) from MHT Group for an equity purchase price of $134.5 million.

HCS is a wholly owned subsidiary of MHT Group, and produces high-quality tungsten. MMC Group is an arm of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi.

The transaction proceeds will be used to reduce MHT’s outstanding debt balance, consistent with Masan Group’s target to reduce net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation to below 3.5x.

Masan is expected to report a one-time profit gain of approximately $40 million as a result of the transaction and benefit from long-term net profit after a tax uplift of $20-30 million.

The two parties will enter into a long-term ammonium paratungstate and tungsten oxide offtake agreement, according to the announcement.

The closing of the transaction is expected by the end of 2024 and is subject to customary corporate and regulatory approvals.

MMC Group’s acquisition of HCS will help the company tap its strengths in the mid-stream and down-stream tungsten value chain. The deal will also provide it with access to HCS’s production hubs in Europe, North America and China, as well as a comprehensive tungsten scrap recycling platform backed by proprietary intellectual property.

Under their agreement, Masan will retain its ownership of Nyobolt, a fast-charging tungsten and niobium-based battery technology company based in the UK. Masan will also retain a potential monetary upside from future commercialization of black mass recycling technology developed by HCS.

Nyobolt is starting to scale up and commercialize its operations. In July 2023, Nyobolt unveiled an electric vehicle concept with a six-minute charging time, and has signed terms with two major commercial customers.

Danny Le, CEO of Masan Group and chairman of MHT, said: “We will focus on rebuilding MHT to the lowest cost producer of tungsten to maximize cash flows. At the same time, we will continue to explore strategic alternatives to transform Masan Group into a consumer pure-play. Less is more.”

Kazuo Ohara, president of MMC’s metalworking solutions business, said: “This transaction represents an important milestone in the execution of our FY2031 strategy to further grow in the tungsten industry and contribute to a recycling-oriented society.”

Masan High-Tech Materials is traded on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) as MSR. MSR shares closed up 1.1% at VND18,200 ($0.71) apiece on Friday.

On Thursday, MMC Group was likely the seller of 109.92 million MSR shares, or a 10% stake, in MMT Group via three put-through transactions to domestic buyers, raking in VND1,626.75 billion ($63.9 million), lower than the $90 million it spent on the stake in October 2020.