I don't really understand the point of the Mezzanine...

I don't really understand the point of the Mezzanine progressing at all if we could go it alone with the equity. If the equity was a superfluous strategy to expedite Macquarie, it's not like if Mac rocks up on Monday and says here's the money we can dial back the equity raise (from my reading of what the contract is we've signed off on).

my take is that it does pressure them to come to the table as the management team are looking for other options, and that it indicates there's interest from European financials on the basis of a European heavy investment vehicle. Further the equity raise highlights to Mac how the funding gets finalised, so all the risks are defined.

Full equity raise of the 100m US doesn't remove the debt question, but It provides two paths forward for us as shareholders, 1. we get the equity from a European listed entity and Macquarie provides the additional mezzanine, or 2. we get the equity from a European listed entity and mezzanine comes from the "European banks" they're discussing with.