Finder Exploration, page-36

Litigant,

Sure your trout fishing analogy sometimes applies, but invested on that approach before and been dissapointed: Arc Energy a decade ago after they'd bagged 4 oil fields, and after the Tui cluster of 3 small fields. Had a bit more success with the cooper basin east flank. Despite Phoenix not aware of any professionals trying to flog a better than 20% POS for Roc. Therefore any fishing after a dry Roc is going to look quite expensive and risky. I guess a good reason why CVN could be justified in farming down the 30% holdings to 20 now, while the prospectivity is still enticing.

As for CVN being the purchased. That would be an awfully expensive alternative to paying up for the Finder stake. Us folk being greedy as usual I can't see us selling into a takeover under 35 cps atm, which imho is more than any buyer could justify. Unless they had a buyer lined up for Thailand I can't see them valuing that plus the cash at more than 9 cps, which effectively leaves them paying about $250 mm for CVNs 20%.

Hard to make a successful offer for a company like CVN when the punters are excited. Better to wait until something disappoints, such as Roc turning up dry or Apache being ambivalent on Phoenix results and perhaps Thailand has been sold by then making it cleaner.

EL