please mr cook, can i have a dividend?, page-20

Having seen the minimal impact of the onmarket CSL share buy back, I am not keen on sharebuy backs. I have also seen them in the form of buy backs directly from shareholders - all they do is take out many of the smaller shareholders making it cheaper and easier to be taken over.

I have seen many companies make dividends because they have been doing well for a couple of years. It does little for the share price. Dividends need to be sustainable for it to be factored into the share price.

To use a mining analogy - at the moment BTA can be considered to be a mine who have just struck it rich, but with a limited lifespan. LANI is the key.

I also think BTA's bad experience with GSK is actually a good thing. I would expect (and hope) that they learnt a few lessons and if LANI trials are positive, BTA drive a very hard bargain.

I would expect GSK to be one of the companies after LANI. I would ask double if it was them to get back some of the money BTA should have got in the relenza court case.

Mal