Seems to me they had no option but to merge with partner who had...

Seems to me they had no option but to merge with partner who had some cash. Back in Aug 2012 SXG said they expected to be able to raise $25m in debt for Marda and have this in place by Dec 2012. Dec has passed and there is no word from them about Marda debt finance. When they had a rights issue in Aug '12 they got only 44% uptake of entitlement to raise about $4.5m.
Another gold co, PGI, are paying an effective interest rate of 20% plus a swag of options to Macbank for debt funding.
Debt is expensive and equity requires heavy discount.
The merger with PLY makes perfect sense and the 11 SXG to 1 PLY swap seems fair to me. Problem is we have to wait 4 months for the approval.