I meant crafty on the part of the PRG board and its advisors to limit the potential for cash leakage.
(To be fair, I think SKE's covering letter accompanying the Scheme Implementation Agreement did make explicit reference to this).
As for the intention - or otherwise - of a second-half dividend, this would only have been decided on at a meeting of the board at which the full-year results were tabled.
The thing that strikes me about this entire affair is how lucky the SKE board has been: through almost nothing whatsoever of the board's own doing, SKE shareholders are getting a higher price for their stock... for little reason other than between the time that PRG first approached SKE (Dec 2014) and now, PRG has reported an impressive financial result which has catapulted that stock up, taking the SKE share price with it when the SKE board - appropriately - returned to the bargaining table.
The alternative scenario to this one for SKE shareholders, I believe, would have been a certain cut in dividends, combined with the high probability of an equity raising in order to repair a rapidly deteriorating balance sheet.
I think we SKE shareholders have been lucky to get out of jail, thanks to the kindness of strangers.
SKE Price at posting:
$1.55 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
