Ann: Trading Halt, page-55

That delay was caused by a large fertiliser company expressing interest in the cr and that involved a lengthy negotiation process because they were not only interested in a simple equity investment. Those talks didn't lead to a deal which the market didn't like and that fact along with the long delay led to the options being offered as a sweetener for the original cr participants. Would the cr have raised enough cash without the options at that time? Some here believed it would not have. The company really couldn't afford to take that gamble and while it wasn't popular and the company has copped criticism for it, I think it was probably necessary. If they raised $3mill or $4mill instead of $6mill, where would we be now?
A couple of years ago, MNB did a $15mill cr when they still had a reasonable amount of cash. They were criticised for doing that one early but it worked out very well because the market turned down hard for the next two years and having that cash leading into that period was a big positive. The latest cr could have been done earlier, with the benefit of hindsight, but the company was expecting the IDC approval earlier and probably hoped to have that approval ahead of doing that cr.
It's not easy getting cr timing perfect. The market will look beyond that if MNB secures funding and starts construction.