New bidder enters AWE race, page-47

MIN would have learnt something from that bid 8 yrs ago for Polaris who had $4.2mil cash in the bank ($7.1mil by the time the offer ended) and a SP of 30c. Their Yilgarn iron ore project was what made them attractive.

So what started off as a 38c offer by MIN soon became a tug of war when a counter offer of 60c was lobbed by Lion Asia (50-50 Singapore-Malaysian consortium).

Subsequently MIN upped their bid & Lion did the same from 60c to 70c & then to 74.7c at which point MIN offered 82.1c. By then Lion had 23% holdings & after exercising the oppies held apprx 49.8mil shares.  

In the current context, by June end MIN had net cash of $104mil (i.e, 378m cash minus 274mil debt) plus a syndicated debt facility valid for 4 yrs for the amount of $400mil. So they have enough ammo by the looks of it.

They are generating cashflow by exporting spodumene from Wodgina, which they got back from Atlas once the Iron ore was depleted. So it will b interesting to see how this game eventuates, as in how much more cash can CERCG offer or do they walk away & chase something else on the east coast.