The offer from Engineers & Planners is totally legit. They are...

The offer from Engineers & Planners is totally legit. They are an extremely reputable company and they are able to clearly show that they were in prior discussions with the Cardinal Board re acquiring their assets a number of months ago so this is not something that has just been dreamt up overnight. ASX received the offer. Reviewed it. Then approved it's release. They would not have done that if they felt there were issues with the legitimacy of the offer.

Whether E&P remain in the bidding race or pull out if bids go higher is unclear. No doubt their main objective will be to get the project up and running with their mining services involved as soon as possible. My view is that things are sorted and that normal bidding activity and process has been restored. There may be some small legal or procedural things to sort out via TO panel but in my mind we now have a normal market operating with two bids at $1.05 and one bidder at $1.00 with the board recommending shareholders accept the Shandong bid at $1.05 as it is unconditional and hence superior to E&P's. Nord can yell all they like but the markets (In Australia and Canada) are trading normally on $1.05 bids and things are moving forward and can't be stopped or unwound just because Nord don't like the fact that a higher competing bid has triggered Shandong's ability to raise their bid. Nord will have to face reality shortly and raise their bid if they still want to remain in the game to takeover Cardinal and that's a cold hard fact that they will have to swallow.