offer rules, page-10

Yes, AWE can't really lose with this offer, but I personally see it as serious. Target statements are by nature necessarily conservative given who they are prepared by, so even increasing the offer as a result of the defence by ADI will result in them getting good value. And it would be hard for a competing offer to come in given AWE's existing holdings unless it was a very good one.

However, I personally see this as primarily being a means to gain exposure to shale gas development technology through a more direct relationship with Hilcorp given AWE's large Perth Basin holdings, and no doubt they are also keeping an eye on other shale gas plays. They would gain this knowledge while getting direct benefit from the value in ADI itself. The worst case for AWE would be a high value bid from a third party- not a bad worst case!

We have seen a number of majors recently join the US plays in a big way just to gain this knowledge to apply in Europe and elsewhere. AWE's effort is a relatively low cost means of doing the same.