sinosteel takes shares in lieu of cash, page-54

Or was the company assurred many additional contracts by CDU.

This may have answered your question. $13m cash forgone and they would not have sold plant at a cash loss. So at most its the profit - how much are we talking 20%? That's of order $3m. How much premium on 3,333,333 did they pay? About $1 premium is about $3M. So it looks like the actual construction cost to Sino is $10M and they sacrificed the profit to get position.

if there is (guessing) $50M additional construction coming their way any slippage/arbitrage/cost risk would be managed into absorbed in the next contract. The advantage to CDU is they have constructor experience and access on tap. Consultants have their place but getting pretty firm cost estimates and timing info ahead of time, and possibly on fixed plus inflation adder pre-agreed formulas (inc forex) and some priority on timing of plant supply because of their ownership ....is worth what to CDU? They also have someone with skin in the game and who has national friends on the register - why wouldn't Sino have exercised some guanxi over bowl of noodles or two with the other two Chinese holders to get their view?

Personally, I don't think the the noted naysayer has a commercial clue in his body. It's a world of black and white, fullstops and commas, and word smithing.

Looks to me like its a close to zero cost entrance for Sino, with upside and CDU doesn't have to go cap in hand to Australian gougers called sophisticates to get cash at discounts, or banks. When OW and NAIL are tapped out there is someone else to ask and the possibility to again offer shares in-lieu to allow Sino to have top up. Its dilution, but if any future global smash up comes and there simply isn't funds to borrow except at usurious and extortionate rates to get the money to buy plant, then Sino will be there and they won't be extortionate because of the guanxi with their fellow shareholders.

Its not the deal that doesn't pass the commercial sense test to me, commercial sense failure lies elsewhere and total lack of integrity to push an agenda.