A couple of thoughts: just as they seemed to delay the quarterly...

A couple of thoughts: just as they seemed to delay the quarterly in July (27 July was the latest quarterly reporting day since early 2021) so they could announce that Olaroz 2 had gone into production so maybe they are giving the Quebec authorities a bit of extra time to make an announcement on the James Bay permitting. Martin MD clearly said that COMEX was to try to finalise their recommendations on James Bay at their meeting on 26 July and I am expecting some news arising from that in the next fortnight. Perhaps they have heard a whisper it will be in the next few days.

Normally for ASX stocks only the preliminary full year results are due by the end of August, while the audited full results are due by the end of September and the annual report is due by the end of October. No doubt they may be rushing to get their audited full year financial statements ready for the Independent Expert and general merger process but there is no particular rush to get the Annual Report out now. They can let the IE into a data room to look at yet-to-be-released information and by the time the IE releases its report Allkem can have released its Annual Report to the market. Anyway the 9 August announcement did not say they were releasing their annual report in August so maybe the reference in the 17 August announcement that they would be releasing the Annual Report next Tuesday is not right. If they are attempting to get their audited financial statements out this month, instead of the usual end of September, then I can understand they are under the pump.

Also worth remembering that their long-time CFO, Neil Kaplan passed away in February. Whoever has filled Mr Kaplan's shoes is going through this end-of-financial-year rush for the first time as CFO. Add on top of that all the extra work and rush generated by the coming merger process.