23 million options exercised by sto, page-5

nomads et al

Good question, because now that they are at 19.99% they CAN'T buy any more on market without making an offer for ESG. Maybe they do intend to do just that .. who knows? I supect not. If someone else made an offer at say $2.00 ... they could just as easily convert the options then and buy a few more on market to get over 20% (they would only need to buy ~ 80k!!).

Santos missed out on QGC when they made a low-ball offer on market. This time around I would expect a fully priced offer ... a knock out offer in fact .. IF they move on ESG. Santos has said they are working "collaboratively" with ESG and ESG, and ESG managment and directors (and founders) have 17.8% and will not IMHO sell out unless a substantial reserves upgrade is completed and any offer from Santos or others is at fair value. So ... I don't expect a move for a few months (or until after a reserves upgrade at least .. whenever that might be).

So maybe the options conversion was just a formality and we shouldn't read anything into it at all.

H