share price, page-20

TPLO, GUN have already been negotiating for over a year, have said méiyou to parties who wanted control, and made it very plain GUN would retain control. But of course they also need funding, so they can't hold out for a huge % like 90%. Don't you think if you were GUN & had been negotiating a deal of this size for so long, you've got most of the other components in place (approvals etc), you insist on control but you don't want to frighten away a serious bidder, then you'd be prepared to move closer to 50% than 90% ? This is hardly like buying a small item over the Internet.

Put it this way: if I were running a sizeable Asian based multinational and I had been negotiating for a long time with a small potential supplier like GUN (who has no mine but wants me to share the risk), and this potential supplier kept holding out for an unreasonable % control, I'd just walk away rather than be stuffed around by a minion.

Look, for those of us who have been holding this stock a long time (from the ipo for my first small parcel, 11 years ago I think) its VERY frustrating, and at times I feel I could kick David Harley really hard. World economic conditions have worsened, China's growth has slowed (still v high by western standards), that's probably all made it harder for GUN. But its seems they're getting much closer to a deal, judging from price action & buying by the #1 shareholder, so we all wait (im)patiently.