why the delay?, page-3

Well it's just a theory but yes that's what I'm suggesting. It's what I would do and it would make sense. Especially, if I were an MD looking to save a bit of face. i.e. here's a terrible half-yearly but here are the funds to move every project forward and finance us for 3 the next years. The fact that the half yearly has been delayed implies that they are tying it to something else of note. Rarely have they delayed on these key dates before.

It's speculation on my part but highly probable if you consider the original time-frames and the update from the last quarterly on January 11, 2012.

Source: HC Announcements - Page 12, col 1, bot

"A number of parties have advanced to the second stage of the bidding process. Kagara anticipates completion of the transaction by the end of Q3 FY12"

Like you said, "As soon as the deal is struck, i.e., contracts exchanged, they must inform the ASX."

And then bang out come the half yearly results just before or just after. They can sit on that data for a bit longer.