RAP (ASX) Ann: Trading Halt

Originally posted by TerribleTadpole: ↑

"this lack of announcements of further the telehealth deals" – there won't be any. Stop expecting them and try not to be too troubled. Nobody is going to sign a deal, or even potentially waste their time talking to a company that might not exist six weeks from now. Every potential partner will wait until after the takeover is resolved one way or the other. In fact, the chances are that every existing partner put their integration projects on hold as soon as the takeover was announced.

I expect trading on RAP to be on hold/suspension now until the independent expert's report is released, or the scheme booklet is released, or the takeover price is revised, or the takeover is withdrawn, whichever way this thing goes. In any case trading can't resume while the independent expert's report is in circulation but not released to the public. The trading halt was requested for two days simply because this is the maximum time that can be requested for a halt. Tomorrow morning there will almost certainly be another request for the trading halt to continue until trade opens on Monday 6th. And then on Monday, if ResApp and the independent expert and Pfizer are still not ready there will be a request for voluntary suspension.

Depending on what the independent expert's report is saying there could be a lot of work to do on the scheme booklet:
If the report is adverse to the offer and Pfizer won't increase their bid the directors may want to reword the booklet to say that the do not support the offer.
If the report is adverse and Pfizer will increase their bid then there will be numbers to change and the directors may want to reword their arguments and may still choose not to support the offer, or may support it conditionally.
In any case the findings of the independent expert's report will have to be summarised and folded into the scheme booklet.

And then... the booklet has to be sent to ASIC for approval, which will take two weeks. After that ResApp has to get permission from the court to issue out the booklet.

I believe that the only way that trading can resume before the scheme booklet is released is if the independent expert's report is released independently beforehand. If not, then I expect trading to stay halted/suspended for 2-3 weeks.

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I expect tomorrow's announcement will be a voluntary suspension. Nothing to worry about, just normal process. The independent expert's draft report may be released at the same time, or RAP may wait to release the final version. It makes sense for all parties to have time to digest the final report before trading is resumed IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if the suspension remains in place until after the vote. If the vote is "yes", which I think is unlikely, I would not expect RAP shares to ever trade again. Thanks for all your efforts, TT. Don't forget to breathe, RAPpers!