In 2013, the Smorgon family acquired up to 9.36% in AQO (see announcement 13/12/2013). The fund is called VBS Exchange. Around the same time there was a trading halt talking about a potential chance of control transaction, which came to nothing.
In the following months, the share price was capped at around 20-21 cents by a large sale. This was taken out several days before the takeover announcement by Eye Fund (see 19/5/2014). Given the size of the purchase (~8 million shares), the seller could only be one of a few people. Given the directors and Hatz??? retained their shares, I speculate that Eye Fund acquired a sizeable chunk of the Smorgon stock. Smorgon/VBS exchange have not update their substantial holding position, so I can't be sure.
It is the fact that Eye Fund purchased their stock at ~20 cents (significantly above the trading range of 15-18 cents in the previous few months) and immediately sold the stock to DLS that leads to the contention in Magnum's submission to the takeover panel that DLS and Eye Fund (and other directors) had a pre-arranged sale agreement, which Magnum claim is illegal, or not in the spirit of the corporations act.
Hope this clears things up a little. The only thing I am not certain above is that the 8 million shares acquired by Eye Fund came from Smorgon. But I am sure a quick look at an updated Top 20 shareholders would clear things up. I can't find one, unfortunately.
AQO Price at posting:
36.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
