re: Ann: Drillsearch offer price for Acer is ... Goodaye TR -...

re: Ann: Drillsearch offer price for Acer is ... Goodaye TR - yes they absolutely can do that - and they will.
the rules re spread are somewhere on the ASX website.
the number of s/h used to be 300- but am unsure if that number still applies.
also turnover of shares is a factor.

whilst the number of shareholders is an issue, also a factor is the strength of remaining s/h. By strength I mean the "clout".
a good example was CTY - Country Road.
Sol Lew is the biggest s/h with maybe 11.9%. Woolworths Sth Africa is the controlling s/h with 87.9%, and wanted to delist CTY.
But Sol Lew told Woolies SA something like "over my dead body" - so CTY stayed listed on the ASX.
And CTY now only has 184 shareholders.

whilst DLS is pretty much assured of getting over the 90% compulsory acqusition threshold, if they don't, and ACN is delisted, then those s/h who hang on, will be holding an illiquid share.
Whilst almost assuredly, DLS will come back and make another offer, because they WILL want to get to 100%, those s/h could be in for a long, long wait.

Now, from experience, what can happen is that ACN will want funds, so DLS will do a CR. They will do it on terms that are not attractive to the minority shareholders who remain in ACN.
SO what would happen, is that then DLS takes up the CR, they go over the 90%, then DLS can then compulsorily acquire the outstanding shares anyway!.
AND - the price they can do it at, is a price determined by an "Independent Expert Valuation" !
And that price is not necessarily a price that the minority s/h would be happy with!?
They need Court approval to do so, but the minority s/h are always at a big disadvantage.
So a hold-out is fraught with issues.

am not a lawyer - just trying to remeber from past experiences. some good - some not so good.

cheers