57 cents, page-51

It will be interesting to see whether SDL has anything to say regarding this today.

If the article is true, then I'm not surprised with the 57c offer. I was hoping for somewhere in the 60's though. If true, an official 57c offer would provide a much better level of certainty than the unoffical 50c offer currently on the table. From this point of 57c we will be able to see whether there are any other interested parties, although I don't think there will be.

I had been posting for quite a while now that shareholders should be expecting a T/O and that a JV wasn't a probable outcome. I think that those who are surprised by this outcome (if true) have let emotion over-ride logical thinking. The problem began with the plane crash last June, when we lost our cornerstone shareholder. Hanlong saw on opportunity to capitalise on the situation and took up Talbot's stake. From then on, the Chinese would have formulated a strategy whereby the Chinese Steel Mills would not bid over the top of any Hanlong offer. Whether the Steel MIlls let this be known to SDL management during April-June or whether they continued talks with SDL with no intention of coming to an agreement is anyone's guess.

People need to understand that business is fluid and situations change. At the time SDL was spruiking JV deals they would have been deep in discussion with Chinese Steel Mills and thought a deal would have been able to be done. The situation changed, and the deal could no longer be done. To try and label this misleading and decepitve conduct is just plain idiotic to be honest, and is akin to a petulant child throwing a tantrum. For a JV to occur there needs to be a willing partner who is able to provide finance. You can't keep chanting for a JV and hope for a partner to mythically appear out of thin air.

Hopefully SDL releases something today.