I think you're right.
The business is neither fish nor fowl in the eyes of the market.
I think that the intention to acquire using appropriately priced scrip has been scuppered so the business is now only half pregnant, and the board's hands are bit tied as a result.
In my view, on the Predator <->Prey continuum, SEQ has gone from Predator=90% / Prey=10% a year ago, to Predator=30% / Prey=70% today.
A private equity outfit could pay 40% above market value for the company, strip out the cash, sell most of the bits to specialist industry incumbents, mildly gear whatever gets retained as the rump, a be free carried with some change to spare.
I mean, Morrisons' $6.5m EBITDA alone could justify the current ~$50m Enterprise Value.
If something internal doesn't happen soon - say the next 6 to 9 months - to take the market value of the company closer to its fair value, the stock will increasingly become the sitting duck it already is.
I wonder how long will it take, if at all, for the Board to form a view that the above path - i.e., hanging a For Sale shingle outside the company door - is the most optimal path to extracting shareholder value.
Of course, there is a risk that they use the balance sheet firepower to make acquisitions as part of a takeover defence strategy.
Which I doubt will be at all a good thing.
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