Firstly, I don't see any risk whatsoever to the existing shareholders of POK other than if current arrangements between POK and Buddy were to be terminated, which I believe to be highly unlikely given the happy demeanour of Buddy's CEO today.
Re: reverse stock split and Section 3.9 (the 20 cent rule) – The new policy recognizes that where an entity’s securities have been trading on ASX at less than 20 cents, having to undertake a consolidation or other restructure to facilitate compliance with the 20 cent rule prior to, or in conjunction with, a capital raising can impose structural, timing and other impediments to the completion of a transaction that might otherwise be in the interests of an entity and its security holders. In such a case, ASX will consider a request from the entity not to apply the 20 cent rule provided:
The issue price or sale price for any securities being issued or sold as part of, or in conjunction with, the transaction:
is not less than two cents each; and
is specifically approved by security holders as part of the approval(s) obtained under Listing Rule 11.1.2; and
ASX is otherwise satisfied that the entity’s proposed capital structure after the transaction will satisfy Listing Rules 1.1 condition 1 and 12.5 (appropriate structure for a listed entity).
To my understanding, conditions precedent for the completion of the acquisition will include among other things, the issue of shares in Potash under a capital raising in an amount sufficient for Potash to re-comply with Chapters 1 and 2 of the ASX Listing Rules. The initial Option Agreement to acquire Buddy was announced to the market on 20/07/2015 after POK opened @ 4.9c so the issue of 150m shares to raise $7.5m was only representative at the time of that market release. I would be more than happy for Potash to announce a CR @ 5c on a pro-rata basis to existing shareholders, but I doubt that will happen, nor would it be in the Company's best interests when it is already trading at a +200% premium.
As mentioned above the incoming CEO appears to be in very good spirits today... and I suspect this probably has more to do with pouring gasoline on the fire than his fav footy team winning...