Member Info for steward1

He's been forced into a corner where he needs to make a firm bid... or else, he runs the risk of losing it altogether... along with the £100+ million that he has already spent.

It's interesting that, this time, the BoD has not dismissed MA's potential offer out of hand. I imagine that there's some calls going back and forward and that some negotiation is now going on.

MA would not be making his 1st offer the only offer so I suspect that he's got some headroom to increase it.

The writing is on the wall for the Debs BoD and they need to be thinking how can they get out of this with their personal reputations in tact! The right thing to do would be to agree to MA taking over- they should step aside and allow MA to do his thing.

Given the bad blood between MA and the BoD, I expect that they're not going to roll over quite yet (hence the current sp). I wouldn't be surprised if they extract a couple more pence out of him... 10p firm offer by the end of the week in my opinion!

I'm no expert but my guess is that they may technically still be within the 12 month period due to the transaction on 18th April. It doesn't change the overall % but the nature of the holding changed. If there are any experts out there, it would be helpful to know.

Nevertheless, MA only has a couple of days to make up his mind on an offer.

Sorry Smartie - I didn't see a straightforward answer. Did you say that Odey were closing their short?

What's your interest here anyway?

Daniel.f, my guess is that they're closing their shorts. Can't see any other explanation - unless Smartie has one? I've asked him twice now this morning but he's refusing to answer.

And the explanation for Odey's disclosure, Smartie?

Smartie - I don't know you from Adam... I reckon my observation was perfectly reasonable. Rather than playing games, you could simply tell us what your explanation is for the disclosure and keep it civil.

Odey also own just under 3% - is this what they have had to disclose? I'm not sure what their previous position was but could they be buying now to hedge their bets?

Looks like MA needs to put his cash on the table in the next couple of days.

Gprasad - simply reflecting takeover rules. Have a read yourself and then tell everyone what price you work it out at.

Smartie, i believe takeover rules oblige the bod not to take any action that would hinder an offer so I reckon at the very least they will have to hit the pause button on the £200m. As for the sp tomorrow - It should head towards 22p. MA was prepared to stump up at least £100m for MDN and I think he will be obliged to offer the price set by takeover rules.

Can't see how anyone would think that the bod has been working with MA!!!

Anyway, it now gets very interesting... MA will make his offer and I believe that his grand plan is o grow something big enough to compete with the likes of M&S, Next, John Lewis, Philip Green's outfit, etc. The guy is not daft and he can see the current weaknesses but there is still massive value in the High Street.

I reckon that those listed above will not want MA to get a major foothold on the High Street so I'd say that there will be others interested in DEB. I doubt if Sports Direct will be the only interested party in a few weeks time. AIMHO!

Good to see the rise since the fall this morning. Once the market wakes up to the fact that it's not impossible for MA to still rescue this, we'll see a more substantial recovery.

The DEB bod will have to engage with MA at some point - they have a duty to engage with any reasonable offer. If they don't, I expect MA to go down the legal route and take out an injunction to prevent them doing anything else. At the very least, this will buy some time. It's not over til it's over and I wouldn't bet against MA yet!

MA isn't going to give up easily... still some way to go.

Given this morning's RNS,the DEB bod will need to offer some engagement with MA.

Good info, lucky.

It would be fantastic if GR was going to sign the deal and pick up the cheque! I suspect that it might be to finalise the management contract for RHA.

There's maybe not many people tuning in over the weekend, chippy.

Ted - thanks for the opinion about Circum. GR shouldn't have purchased in the first place and, in my book, he needs to make use of any assets PREM has before he dilutes us again.

I don't know where you get your info from but I, too, wouldn't be surprised that there are political imperatives to all that is going on. If all the assets and deals are linked in some way, GR needs to be explicit about that.

Just to be clear, I'm not voting for any of the options.

The problem here, Smiley is that we don't know HBR's financial situation but my guess is that they need cash up front - it's something that we don't have. I don't think that there is a version of a deal that gives HBR cash now and avoids dilution on our part.

I'd be prepared to consider dilution at a much higher price but my first priority would be to use that cash for Zulu.

I simply couldn't vote for anything that panders to GR's misguided and foolish pre-occupation with finding assets that he has no record of delivering on. In fact, his purchase of Circum starved RHA and Zulu of much needed funds and we are where we are because of that very, very wrong move! I have zero confidence that GR can deliver on HBR.

What I would consider is voting for option 1 but a strict condition would be that GR stepped down.

Pearls, I'm pretty sure that MA hasn't accepted defeat yet.

What will be interesting is how other major shareholders respond. ODDO seemed to be building a stake in the last few days? Perhaps we'll see some RNS's on Monday given the amount of buying and selling today.

Can MA get sufficient support to pressure the bod to force an early EGM?

I think there's still some way to go here!