Ann: Recommended cash offer for takeover by schem, page-11

re: Ann: Recommended cash offer for takeover ... Tilley,

It really could be at any stage in the approval process so I can't really give you much more than that. From a strategy point of view if there was another potential suitor I would suspect they will take the opportunity to purchase as much at the discounted price before they were forced to lodge a substantial shareholder notice at which time I suspect the rival bid will be made.

A factor against a rival bid is that the corporate activity discussions occurred for a very long time so you would suspect that if another offer was to be made it would have been by now. It is however possible that the commencement of the takeover process will force those to now take action or miss out. Ultimately I believe we will see other offers because MDS as a very low cost near production mine is by itself significantly more valuable than $70M, Rockwood has potential and EOC has quite a vast tenement holding. My understanding is that the QLD government are now forcing companies to bid for tenements going forward (adding value to those already issued).

It will be an interesting couple of months.

I am the Iceman!