Ann: Santos rejects Harbour proposal and terminates discussions, page-157

Thank you for posting that. The run-down on the negotiations is rather entertaining.

It will be interesting to see what the phrase "whatever share of Quadrant Energy is on the market" actually translates to in practice. In my opinion it is worded in a way that almost certainly rules out a buy-out. One or more of the present equity holders might be interested in selling some or all of their respective interests. It's also possible that the present owners may be prepared to allow an additional party to buy in.

My personal view is that this is exactly the wrong time for this. Our own ship is still damaged and weakened by the harm done by the last round of top-of-cycle acquisitions. We're in no position to take on another round of counter-phase corporate transactions. In addition there are plenty of threats to global stability, growth and trade as well as short terms concerns relating to the price of oil.

I believe we should be accruing and assetising the current benign operating climate. That way when conditions worsen we will have the capital strength to pursue opportunities created by stupider management in other companies.

If it starts to look like its our own managers that are the stupid ones, beginning a fresh round of the same idiotic mistakes before they've even fixed the damage from the previous time, then I'll be out of here without a second thought.