RE: Caesars Takeover13 Apr 2021 19:30
Ronnie, Judges always take their own sweet time, because they have a clerk who writes the judgement for them. The judge will tell his clerk, after the hearing, which way he leans and expect the clerk to come up with legal arguments, including precedent, in the form of previously adjudicated cases, to support the judge's opinion.
I'm no lawyer, but I'll bet there is precious little in the way of precedent here, because almost all court approvals go through 'on the nod'. There's no opposition at the hearing. However, the evidence presented last month was clear and pretty persuasive. The board of WMH told the PI's the absolute minimum, both at the time of signing the Caesar's deal and later on the offer. They arguably misled us all, in a very serious fashion. They told us the truth, but they were a long way from telling us the 'whole truth'. That's called 'lying by omission' and is highly disapproved of in Contract Law.
To bar the deal on the grounds of misrepresentation by both parties would, I believe, be a first. Consequently, if that's the judge's opinion, the clerk has the onerous job of getting all his ducks in a row, so that the judgement is as bullet-proof as possible, when it goes to the Court of Appeal, as this very likely would. No judge likes receiving ruderies from his AC colleagues, if the judgement is dead wrong.
Likewise if the judge is minded to approve the takeover, he also needs to get the judgement right, because the plaintiffs are the owners of more than $300 million of stock in WMH and will also likely appeal, if they lose. This is a fascinating case, from the legal perspective. Meantime, Caesar's who were very circumspect in their 1st quarter update, are supposed to be giving much more detail on the 21st, next week. I assume this may not happen, depending on when the judge delivers his verdict.
Meantime, the SP sits at 5p over the agreed TO price, which tells you that a lot of Hedgies still coming in the for the ride, reckoning there's a good chance of Caesar's having the submit a higher offer, north of £3. Their risk is 5p lost if the judge approves and the reward is 25p+ if the judge sides with the large shareholders. Pretty good odds if you've a few million to spare.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
