As I try and understand it all, it appears this was a large...

As I try and understand it all, it appears this was a large block trade transacted through a broker after the closing auction. It would be a negotiated transfer between two parties at the agreed price of 64c per share. The buyer was obviously after a sizeable quantity that would not be readily available on the daily market without drying up available stock and/or causing a very sharp increase in price. The block trade price is not reported as the price at market close so without looking at after market transactions you would not know.

It is clear that the seller would have to be Allan Gray Australia Pty Ltd as they are the only holder of this quantity of shares. The buyer is the unknown and the intention behind the deal. I guess we may not know who the buyer is as it may be a nominee.

The same buyer was probably involved in the after close auction so has now probably acquired the best part of 10% of the issued ordinary shares after todays close. The obligatory substantial shareholder notice will tell us what they are now holding.

The fact that the buyer was prepared to pay 64c shows this is a serious play and you can only speculate on the intention but a takeover must be a possibility. The recent plunge in price has been a great piece of manipulation during the recent market volatility and panic and enabled some good accumulation at a lower price than fair value.

It is good to have a guess about this. Mine is from left field and has been prompted by the recent deal between the Chemist Warehouse Group (CWHG) and DHL and the recent governments CSO decision. Is this going to be the CWHG way of achieving its ASX listing which has been predicted and have its bid's funding supported by DHL which will gain a very large market position supplying to Sigma's group pharmacies and CWH. The question it would raise though is could CWH break its future distribution deal with EBOS/Symbion?.

If it is in fact a takeover play for Sigma, whoever it is could promote a bidding war for or drive Sigma to seek a defensive merger to ward of an unfriendly bidder.

Market open tomorrow will be very interesting!