Ann: Strategic Alliance Agreement - Sojitz Corpor, page-26

re: Ann: Strategic Alliance Agreement - Sojit... Whilst I agree with your sense of caution and certainl agree with you about the emotional and often misleading press, I do not agree that it is well placed caution that should cause concern. You are absolutley correct in analysing the wording. A good example of how ill informed and useless the press is is the photo and sub heading with Lynas mining in Greenland!

Heres why I think its not worth worrying about.....
much of which is well known and obvious yet some clearly is behind the lines:
1. On a personal level - Nik is clearly a savvy "business" man who I am confident would not go this far with Sojit unless there was some reasonable a very positive indication that Jogmac was "in the party". Of course they couldnt say that until the deal is signed off.
2. For Sojit I expect the same kind of background meetings and knowledge as above would exist.
3. In shorthand, the Japanese Gov is nervous and concerned about supply of RE for obvious reasons. Clearly they would want supply "insurance" given the 'cool' relationship generally Japan has with China.
4. The deal is a win win for both countries and companies so why not?
I could comment about supply and demand issues but that ahs been dealt with by more compitent people than me and would only be repeating common knowledge.
I could go on and on but for me the deal is a done deal against this background and from my own experiences of doing business at these levels. IE Its what not is written about the background to something like this that points to a done deal.

I see it as 'money in the bank' in every respect.

With respect I think your cautionary note is relevant but I think overcautious and ultimately incorrect.

Yours a good post though.
regards