Noellyn,Any bid for Exco would certainly come in the form of a...

Noellyn,

Any bid for Exco would certainly come in the form of a share offer. There are plenty of companies around that would love to get their hands on Exco's cash.
I would not have thought that a continuous disclosure rule would apply to the status of a capital return/dividend/taxation issue until such time as a definitive ruling is determined by the ATO. Given that there would seem to be no possibility now of Exco delivering on its forecast of posting out cheques by the end of this month, I feel that the company may well have recently advised the ATO to "hold fire" pending the outcome of informal discussions which could well render any decision irrelevant. I agree with you that in view of IVA's recent and spectacular decline in price it would be hard to see it in the market for Exco but a few bigger players in the region may well be having a look.