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rebarm: My understanding of this is that NH2 is stretching it a bit far saying that they have exclusive rights, when PHE have issued an RNS saying that no agreement has been signed yet. So they may be negotiating for exclusive rights and they may be expecting to get there, but at the moment I think I have to believe what PHE tells us in their RNS.
As I wrote in my post at 10:20 this morning, PHE are restricted in law and by their NOMAD in what they can put out to the public, perhaps that's not the case in Australia. Suggestions on here that PHE is the one at fault is misguided.
It's not about what the PHE BoD want, it's about what they are allowed by law and by their NOMAD to put in an RNS. The idea that the company can hold back information from their shareholders is false, and if they do they can get into trouble. If the agreement hasn't been signed then they have to say that. Maybe there are different company rules in Australia.
Vii: I would like to point out one thing about the White family's shareholding, and it is that while their combined shareholding was above 20% of PHE they were restricted in having any involvement in the management or running of the company, which frustrated Howard White considerably! Now that they have reduced their combined holding to less than 20%, Howard is free to become involved with the Board of PHE in the running of the company (if he so wishes and if they so wish) and I regard that as a good thing especially given his involvement with HUI as well.
I see no conflict between these two companies, nor with the White family, although I am aware that some people are rather suspicious of the their involvement.
Boffin: I don't think Peel are providing the feedstock to the DMG, that will be supplied but the waste management / waste relying facilities on the Protos site, but these facilities are not owned nor operated by Peel, they are separate independent companies wholes their plots from Peel, just the same as the DMG's SPV. Bear in mind that Peel are simply the owner of the land and landlord for all of the different companies and facilities leasing plots from them, Peel is not the overall operator of the Plastic Park and so cannot set the level of the gate fees for the feedstock for the DMG.
Boffin: The four weeks extension is with regard to the option for the exclusivity agreement, but I'm talking about the JV for the Protos SPV which has nothing to do with the exclusivity agreement. I don't believe they ever intended to put their own money for their 50% into the SPV, I believe they were looking for some outside investors to do that, and they probably haven't managed to achieve that. So they may well be happy to abandon the JV agreement with PHE for the Protos plant and let PHE run with it themselves.
As far as the exclusivity agreement is concerned, I have never understood why they wanted to have exclusivity throughout the UK. Perhaps they want their "Plastic Parks" to be exclusive, and need to restrict PHE so that they can't establish DGMs on other non-Peel sites in the UK? I really can't see Peel ever wanting to finance and develop DGM facilities on other non-Peel sites anywhere, when they don't seem to have the drive to get the FOAK up and running on their own site at Protos.
I thought it might be useful to take a look at who the major shareholders are now, following the reduction of shareholdings by the White family:
Josh White 307.8 M (7.8%)
Ben White 190.7 M (4.8%)
Serena W-Reyes 214.6 M (5.4%)
Howard White 76.1 M (1.9%)
White Family Total 19.9%
So Howard is not the highest shareholder by quite a margin. It is unlikely that he is the one who has been selling large amounts recently, and I believe it is unlikely that it is any of the Whites as they have achieved the target of bringing their combined shareholdings below 20% thereby releasing themselves from the restrictive covenant when they acquired their PHE shares in exchange for their W2T shares.
The largest shareholder at the moment is Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers with 19.12%. Presumably that is a Nominee Account and not HLS themselves, so it could be any private individuals within that Nominee Account who is doing the selling.
A point about the restriction: All members of the White family were prevented from becoming involved in the management or running of the company while their combined shareholding was in excess of 20%. Now that their combined shareholding is under 20% they are free to become involved in the business if they want, and presumably if the BoD want them to. Of course I suspect the only member of the White family who might be interested in doing so would be Howard.
I believe that recent speculation about the possibility of the White family planning to increase their shareholding back up to c30% in order to make a take-over bid as totally unfounded. I don't believe that that had anything to do with their desire to rid themselves of the restriction. I can think of no reason or benefit in the White family taking PHE private, with or without HUI.
As I said, I don't see a merger happening any time soon, certainly not before we have a FOAK somewhere either at Protos or Ireland or somewhere else. And I mean a proper merger, not a takeover of one company by the other.
And before anyone asks, no I don't have any inside info, purely based on logic, what would make sense in my own opinion.