OK punters. I've done the long read of the scheme booklet. Has anyone else managed to get through it?
If not, the independent expert's report is probably the most interesting bit. The rest is pretty much advertising material encouraging you to vote for it and stuff which has already been released.
I'd be interested to see what others think overall. Some thoughts here:
* The independent expert and the board seem to struggle with what the company is actually worth. They try to look at share prices before and after the offer, as well as asset values, etc. They continue to argue that the company is worth somewhere between $0.80 & $1.00 and that $0.92 is a good deal.
* The IER really shows how poorly the Board and Management have performed over the past few years. They should all hand back their salaries and bonuses IMO for being totally incompetent.
* Besix is paying 92c for enough shares to give them a 64% controlling interest of the company. So what are they going to do with the rest of the shares and the shareholders? So they get complete control of the company, without having to pay a decent premium for 100% ownership. Once they hold 64%, the chances of the shareholders getting any form of premium for the rest of the company are virtually nil.
* IMO after the scheme is implemented, Besix will move money around their international businesses to make Watpac's performance even worse than the cluster it has been over the past few years. Once they've done that the share price will drop and they can clean up the rest of the shares for pennies, with no resistance.
I still don't know how I'll vote. I can seen an opportunity with the Besix deal to get rid of the dead wood out of Watpac and make it a better. I'd be really interested to hear what others think.
WTP Price at posting:
80.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held