lol, where will they have the money? EVN will only overpay for big item assets like Cowal, but I second that for a small asset like PXG
The Chinese have over $2.2 trillion USD in foreign reserves with most in US treasury, so they have unlimited supply of money esp. all SOEs are linked to the Chinese govt.
I suspect Zijin was one of the bidders for Cowal as well as NST, but both wouldn't willing to overpay for Cowal, as EVN was only desperate to get Cowal to jump into the same league as NST is.
You make it sound like PXG is the only gold company left in the Australia so people are willing to overpay for things, but you are forgetting there are more quality assets on the block.
Barrick still has the Super-Pit in consideration for sale, you can suspect both Zijin and NST will be eyeing on that both Bill Beaumont and Dianmin Chen were ex-Barrick Gold General Managers of a gold mine each.
As for Newcrest, Telfer is also said to be on sale, again the likes of NST and Zijin will be all over it, Telfer is much better than Cowal, if either buyer or even Goldfields of South Africa pay less for Telfer, then you know how bad the deal EVN did for Cowal is.
Either way I only see a max. improved offer of 11c by Zijin if possible. I don't think EVN is capable of outbidding Zijin, even with scrip, as La Mancha will not be happy to be heavily diluted its stake in EVN.
PXG Price at posting:
11.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held