EV can't vote on the takeover....read the details in the initial...

EV can't vote on the takeover....read the details in the initial announcement.
Hopebridge (Rod Jones) with 7% and his associated parties (probably in his network) with ~ 3% together have just above 10% and Viburnum Strategic Fund has 5%. In my view they will both vote NO or at least hold out for a higher price.

Reasoning:
Hopebridge only joined with the others , getting them to sign over their voting rights to him after the takeover was announced (presumably he would have only done this with an intention to vote NO).
Viburnum have only been shareholders since June I think and their stated mandate includes holding strategic blocking stakes.

Other Holders:
Close to 2.4% of current shareholders have indicated on Hot Copper that they will vote NO.
None of the holders on Hot Copper have said they support the deal...if that gives you some indication of what smaller holders may be thinking.

I have done some calculations which account for
- managements (including Directors) existing shareholdings that have agreed to vote YES
- options and performance shares converting...as these are largely held by management & Directors I have assumed they will also vote YES.
In my calculations, assuming approx 85% of voters bother to vote, they need 85% or more YES votes to get the deal over the line.
Many of the top 20 are Directors holdings which will vote YES, but some are Nominee Holdings and some are other holders ....even the smallest top 20 holders have close to 1%.
So if any of them vote NO it will make it even harder for them to get the balance over the line.

So I imagine EV/ Spookfish will speak to the big holders exploring what it would take to get them to vote yes. In my view this could add a few cents to the price. If I was EV, I would do this before all the court docs are done and the Independent report is done...to save time and money ...so they have higher confidence the deal being put to the court will go ahead. Just IMO. Lets hope I'm right !