straits going places, page-27

Darre11:

I notice your cash values come from the chairman's presentation, but the quarterly report cash values were lower:

"At the end of September 2010, the Straits Group cash resources totaled A$170 million (approx 54% held in US$). In addition, Straits has investments of approximately A$48 million in listed companies excluding Straits Asia and Goldminco. At the end of the September 2010 quarter, Straits debt comprised the $80.0 million Convertible
Note with Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited..."

That makes $220M total not $270M Any idea why the change?

Also is there any clear guidlines on how exactly how much cash goes to metals co? The proposal said " An amount of A$50 million will be retained by SRL and cash in excess of that amount at the demerger date will be transferred to MetalsCo in the Demerger. Part of the cash transferred to MetalsCo will be restricted against performance bonds for MetalsCo assets."

So would the restricted part mean and how much is it? How much cash will be left, with the amount that the metals business is burning through before it actually becomes cash positive? Without income there can be no franked dividends, is the cash just going to sit there to be spent?

Also of concern the revalued assets of metals co. results in up to $160M impairment, even after the resource upgrades of the last year.

On the face of it, seems like you get a lot of cash for nothing, but with the share price lagging since the announcement it is maybe not seen quite that simply by bigger investors.