Maybe they just got sucked in by AQA to be a second bidder so AQA could try and get more money out of Baosteel? MIN must have gone in thinking they had a friendly deal lined up (a merger of equals) but got burnt.
If anything I think it has shown that MIN will be very keen to do a deal with IOH.
Assuming the Baosteel offer gets up, it will be interesting to see what this means for IOH as I think they have some sort of interest in the Ankatell port as well. I think it gives them plenty of options. They have just spent $30Mill on the Cape Preston feasibility study so they have this as a low cost option to get things moving quickly while retaining full control over everything. If MIN are keen to invest in a company to get the service contract, let them invest in IOH and get this going ASAP.
I wonder if Baosteel and especially Aurizon were worried by the potential for IOH to pull in the juniors to their Cape Preston infrastructure solution. You would think that if they wanted to tie up all the juniors as well as AQA that IOH would be their best customer as their deposit is large and right in the middle of AQA's.
I think there is more to unfold on this. There must be a lot of wheeling and dealing going on at the moment.
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