BUZZ-Arcadium Lithium jumps on deal talks with Rio Tinto

Updates

** Shares of lithium producer Arcadium Lithium ALTM.N jump 41.1% to $4.33

** Rio Tinto RIO.L is in talks to buy Arcadium, the companies confirmed on Monday

** If completed, Rio will become one of the largest producers of lithium behind Albemarle ALB.N and SQM SQMA.SN

** Brokerage Raymond James ("strong buy 1", PT $5) says given depressed valuation of Arcadium shares, unsurprising that buyers would have appetite for such a deal; "lithium industry is ripe for consolidation, and this would be a textbook case study"

** "An acquisition of Arcadium would enable Rio Tinto to walk away from the ill-fated Serbian project and instead operate upstream assets in Argentina, Australia, and Canada, where miners face fewer regulatory headaches" - Raymond James

(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru)

((Seher.Dareen@thomsonreuters.com;))