The $50m of tax is a worse case scenario. That assumes they have a zero cost base in the asset, which is impossible. It also assumes they have no losses to offset and, as I have said previously, they had tax losses carried forward at the end of June 2010. You also don't know how the sale is to be structured legally and where the assets sit in the group structure.
Also, some or all of the tax gets distributed to shareholders as franking credits, so you save on your own personal tax.
So we need to compare apples with apples. The quarterly will make it clearer, but happy for the uninformed to think differently so I can buy more cheaper today.
EXS Price at posting:
67.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held