The St Davids acquisition multiple was 8.97x EBITDA. Call it 9x...

The St Davids acquisition multiple was 8.97x EBITDA. Call it 9x although this is down on the near 18x f17a normalised EBITDA that was paid for Paris Creek..

The original capital raising was done at a 5% discount to the then prevailing (ie: pre-announcement) SP. So at 70c instead of @74c. Even then, the SP has faltered. Either not enough of a SP discount built in, or a higher than sought after EBITDA multiple.

Based on the current 57c SP, which is down 23% on the announcement SP (74c), 18.5% on the placement SP (70c), today's equivalent EBITDA multiple would have been somewhere between 6.9 - 7.3x. The market therefore seems to have suggested that paying $15.25m via a mix of cash ($12.25m) and scrip ($3.0m) is now considered to be on the pricey side of the equation.

The market also seems to be confused as to why:
* if May18 ending cash was $6.7m; and
* if new cash raised was $2.75m,
the pro forma cash position (post placement) will be $8.0m (before transaction costs) rather than the higher $9.45m (aggregated) amount. That is, there seems to have been a $1.45m+ burn off in cash between when the St Davids acquisition was first announced (21/6) and when the transaction settled (1/8). Perhaps, more. For such an unexplained cash variation in such a short space of time, perhaps this is also why the Company appears to be saying little, or in the Chair suggesting that shareholders need to have patience. Cash however seems to be burning, somewhere, it's just not certain, where.