RE: Come on bod!11 Jan 2021 11:32
TMS
Yes you are right, there have been no firm offers, I agree else they would have had to be RNS'd as per the code.
HOWEVER, that does NOT mean there have been NO OFFERS, unless a company is prepared to go hostile they would not put in a formal offer unless they were of the opinion that it would be accepted.
So:
1. Hostile offer - not happened as yet and unlikely to ever happen IMO. In relative terms this is a small 'market' - key personnel who are closely connected, talk frequently, work together to 'manage' the overall supply, people who have often worked in key positions within each company, it's incestuous like many such markets, they will be talking all the time off the record, it is not in anyone's interests for this to go hostile. If that happened now can you imagine what would happen to the SP as soon as whoever was doing it crossed the threshold for reporting......! Massive SP boom.
2. The BOD own a very large % of the business, in order to get any sort of agreed takeover they would have to be on board, so absolutely no point making any formal offer until they had discussed it with the BOD and the BOD had given an indication that they would support it. Why show your hand, why suffer the embarrassment of having an offer declined, why go through all the work and preparation knowing an offer is going to be turned down, you just wouldn't do it.
So yes, no formal offer (see points 1 and 2 above), but I repeat again, this does not mean that no offers have been made, just not one that at present the BOD find acceptable, however it is also feasible, possible and quite probably likely that an offer has been made already and it is being held back presently from being 'formal' until all the ducks are lined up - don't tell me that you believe such things don't happen in business, that would be incredibly naive of you.
In short, you point is correct, but means absolutely nothing IMO.