Not sure an opportunistic offer would easily find success - with such a fragmented shareholder base - the top 5 shareholders not even accounting for 10% of the shares on issue (if I have my numbers and information correct).
To pull off a takeover I imagine they would need either one heck of an offer to entice shareholders to take the money and run or to have a decent few irrevocable undertakings (accounting for a good 70 - 75% of the shares on issue) in the bag and hope to mop up enough of the minnows to hit the 90%. Realistically, I can't see that happening. Unless you are confident it will succeed why would you bother spending the money on the bid and all the goes with making a bid. All a failed bid would really successfully do is to raise the future premium / price of any takeover at a later stage and blow the lid off the fact that NWE is grossly undervalued at current prices taking into account the potential of what they are sitting on. If I am AWE neither of those outcomes is appealing.
Maybe a merger perhaps more likely than a hostile or unwelcome / unsolicited bid at such an early stage if you consider NWE need more cash to ultimately realise the full value of what they have ? Just a thought.
NWE Price at posting:
7.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
