So the ICI board reckons that they can satisfy the SG$6m (~A$6m) consideration with at most 50m ICI shares, which equates to a minimum price of around 12 cents per ICI share. So they reckon the 5 day volume weighted price of ICI shares over the 5 days immediately prior to completion in November will be at least 12 cents. On what basis? On the basis of recent trades, there would not be a 5 day volume weighted price because there is generally no trade over any 5 day period, the market is totally illiquid. And the recent bid price on ICI shares is around 6 cents, or half the minimum the board is suggesting - which would equate to 100m new shares to make $6m. Seems a bizarre basis for settling a $6m deal. ICI shareholders had better hope that none of them is a friend of the vendors. I think ASX rules prohibit trading for the purpose of influencing the market price - up or down - so I guess ASX and ASIC will take a good hard look at any trades on those 5 days.
Meanwhile, ICI shareholders have to vote with no idea how much the deal is going to cost them, and very little idea of what they will get for their money - they just have the ICI board doing due diligence for them. Not much they can do about the latter, but they could at least insist that the vendor and the board negotiate a fixed number of ICI consideration shares, rather than leaving it to the vagaries of a very vague market.
ICI Price at posting:
17.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
