TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2021 / Lithium Royalty Corp "LRC" is pleased to announce that it has closed on US $70,669,843 of additional capital. As part of this raise, the Company is excited to welcome Riverstone Holdings LLC as a strategic investor in the Company. Riverstone Holdings LLC is a New York-based leading private markets asset management firm dedicated to real assets investing primarily in energy, power and infrastructure. Altius Minerals Corporation (TSX:ALS), a founding strategic investor in LRC, has made an additional investment in the Company. Altius Minerals Corporation is a St. John's-based diversified materials royalty investor, renewable power royalty investor and project generator.
Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd, a Toronto-based absolute return investment manager with over CAD $2.4 billion in assets under management across market neutral, equity long short, long short ESG, income, thematic and specialty private equity strategies, is the founding shareholder and investment manager of Lithium Royalty Corp.
Lithium Royalty Corp, under the leadership of Ernie Ortiz, continues to see attractive investment opportunities and plans to build on its current portfolio of irreplaceable energy transition materials royalties which provide direct exposure to the Electric Vehicle and Renewable Power Storage mega-trends. LRC looks forward to deploying these new funds towards additional battery-grade lithium projects of the highest quality and lowest cost globally and will selectively invest in other high-grade battery material royalties, which, like lithium, are key to current and future battery technology chemistries.
In connection with the closing of this capital raise, we are excited to announce new members to the Board of LRC. The LRC Board will now be comprised of the following members:
Blair Levinsky, Executive Co-Chair - Blair is a Co-Founder, President and CEO of Waratah. Waratah Advisors is an absolute return investment manager with over CAD $2.4 billion assets under management across market neutral, equity long short, long short ESG, income, thematic, and specialty private equity strategies.
Mark Wellings, Executive Co-Chair - Mark has over 30 years of international experience in both the mining industry and mining finance sector. Mark is Co-Executive Chairman of LRC. He previously served as Managing Director of Investment Banking at GMP Securities L.P. for over 18 years, where he co-founded the firms mining practice and was responsible for and advised on some of the Canadian mining industry's largest transactions. Mark is a Professional Engineer and holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Geological Engineering. Mark also serves as a director on the boards of various public companies including Superior Gold Corp., Adventus Mining Corporation and Contact Gold Corp.
Mark Raguz - Mark manages the royalty portfolio at Altius Minerals Corporation (TSX: ALS) where he has led initiatives to originate new development and production stage royalty investment opportunities. Mark has worked closely with LRC's investment committee since LRC's inception in 2018. Prior to his current role, he was Vice President, Investment Banking at several leading full-service boutique investment dealers. He was previously a mining and metals analyst in both buy-side and sell-side research. He has served as a director of various TSX Venture listed companies. Mr. Raguz holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the Lassonde Mineral Engineering Program at the University of Toronto.
Constantine Karayannopoulos - Constantine is President and Chief Executive Officer of NeoPerformance Materials. Mr. Karayannopoulos has worked in senior executive positions at Neo and its predecessor companies for more than 20 years, including as Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Neo Material Technologies ("NEM") from 2005 until NEM was acquired in June 2012 for US $1.3 billion. Mr. Karayannopoulos also serves as Chairman of the Board of Neo Lithium Corp., a position he has held since February 9, 2016.
Robert Tichio - Robert joined Riverstone in 2006, is focused on the firm's expanding efforts in ESG and Sustainability investment platforms and has led many of Riverstone's investments in the exploration and production sector in the Private Equity business. Prior to joining Riverstone, Mr. Tichio was in the Principal Investment Area (PIA) of Goldman Sachs, which manages the firm's private corporate equity investments. Mr. Tichio began his career at J.P. Morgan in the Mergers & Acquisition group, where he concentrated on assignments that included public company combinations, asset sales, takeover defenses, and leveraged buyouts.
Jason Landau - Jason is an Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Waratah Capital Advisors. Jason joined Waratah Capital Advisors in 2010. Jason is the Lead Portfolio Manager on the Waratah Alternative ESG fund and Co-Portfolio Manager on the firm's market-neutral strategies: Waratah One and Waratah One X. Jason also leads the investment team and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee.
Jeannine Li Chong - Jeannine is an Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Waratah Capital Advisors. Jeannine joined Waratah Capital Advisors in 2018 after a successful 22-year career at a Canadian money manager. Jeannine is a Portfolio Manager for the Waratah Income Fund and is on the Summerhill Resorts Ltd. Investment Committee. She is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee.
And Special Advisor to the Board, Matt Juneau - Matt currently serves on the Chemicals Advisory Board of Arsenal Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm focused on chemicals and healthcare, and as Senior Advisor to Lithium Royalty Corporation. Matt retired from Albemarle Corporation in March 2018 after 35 years with the company. He served as EVP, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, from 2015 until his retirement. Prior to his last role with Albemarle, Matt served in numerous business and sales leadership roles, including President, Performance Chemicals, a US $1.2 billion business unit from 2012 to early 2015.
Ernie Ortiz is President and Managing Director of LRC, a position he has held since 2018. Prior to joining LRC in 2018 he was is an investment analyst at a US based equity fund where he specialized in lithium, battery materials and specialty chemicals. He was previously at Credit Suisse where he was the lead associate in the Basic Materials group based in New York. In that role, he led the research and due diligence on lithium, which called for the imbalance between supply and demand the market faced in 2016/2017. Ernie sits on the London Metal Exchange (LME) Lithium Advisory Committee and has been quoted in Reuters and the Wall Street Journal for comments on the lithium market. Ernie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and holds the CFA designation.
About Lithium Royalty Corp
Lithium Royalty Corp is a global investor in high-grade, low-production-cost, ultra-pure battery-grade energy transition materials which give it direct exposure to the Electric Vehicle and Renewable Power Storage mega trends. LRC is dedicated to its role in assisting global decarbonization through its investing activities and integrates ESG criteria into its investment process. LRC is a UNPRI signatory.
For more information, please email Ernie Ortiz at [email protected] and or visit www.lithiumroyaltycorp.com.
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SOURCE: Lithium Royalty Corp