Leo Lithium (ASX: LLL) has announced it will hand back more than $171mn to investors next month, after ruling out acquisitions and preparing to leave the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

The Australian company was spun out of Firefinch Ltd in 2022 to hold and advance Mali’s Goulamina lithium project, among the world’s largest undeveloped hard-rock lithium deposits. It partnered with China’s Ganfeng Lithium, which took a 50% interest in the project and later agreed to buy out Leo’s 40% stake.

Leo Lithium sold the stake in 2024 for $342.7mn, payable in stages. The first tranche of $161mn, received in October 2024 after Malian tax deductions, funded a AUD207.2mn payout in January 2025, equivalent to AUD 17.2 cents per share.

In a September 11 corporate update, the company said that shareholders will receive $171.2mn plus about $6.4mn in interest in mid-October 2025, the second and final tranche from the sale of the stake to Ganfeng Lithium.

“Despite a thorough investigation of several acquisition opportunities over the past months, the company has not secured terms of a transaction that it considers would be in the best interests of shareholders,” Leo Lithium said in the filing, explaining the Board’s decision to distribute Tranche 2 Funds to shareholders as early as possible in Q4 2025.

Leo Lithium said its Board is also weighing how to deal with residual assets, including a “Trailing Product Sales Fee” tied to future Goulamina production. A strategic review, due by September 19, will examine whether to retain the corporate structure or wind the company up, with advice on maximising after-tax shareholder returns.

Leo Lithium’s shares have been suspended since September 2023 and will be automatically delisted on September 22 under ASX rules. Investors will keep their holdings but will no longer be able to trade them on the exchange; instead, Computershare will issue paper share certificates that can be transferred off-market.

The company said the October distribution will be made via electronic transfer only, with Australian withholding tax applied if tax file numbers or Australian Business Numbers (ABNs) are not registered.