RE: Takeover Guidance10 May 2021 14:50
I'm afraid I'm no expert. Far from it. If I was, I'd have cut and run when it went to £1.40+ but actually held on thinking this may be a good pension income when it got to production. If someone made an offer in the meantime, great! As to the offer price... I really don't know what it's worth (I'd hoped minimum £1.50 up to to pipe-dreams) , but I would question why the Chairman was paying 70/80p not too long ago and now seems to think 67.5p is good (accepted he's had a lot of freebies since). When he bought, was he looking to double / triple his money or follow this through to production? On that though, I noticed the RNS stated the Independent Directors would recommend it. I saw a list of our Directors and Secker & Hohnen weren't listed as independent. I don't know if that's significant. I also can't get my head around what substantial (relative) benefit Secker / Hohnen will get from the sale. Yes a pay out / off but will it outweigh what they could have by sticking around? The guidance does have one or two interesting details. Like the percentage of shares required by Ganfeng to control the board (50%) or compulsory purchase the whole thing (90%) so blocking the sale may not be as far off as first thought. It also highlights the issues Chinese companies encounter if this did enter a bidding war should someone else (Tesla, VW etc...) get involved. I agree (and hope) this may just be a move to get the ball rolling and see what happens. With regards to market abuse the Takeovers and Mergers Panel vet this, but I'm not sure they'll be interested in the valuation rather than the mechanics of the process. May be worth investigating though?