Yes and no. It’s the takeover law, not ASX. Corporations Act...

Yes and no. It’s the takeover law, not ASX. Corporations Act S611 allows several exceptions to the general prohibition against acquiring over 20% (as well as making formal takeovers). The 3% creep rule is item 9 of S611. Somers and associates bought 20.9m shares on 18 April = 2.6% of MME shares, which took their total purchases in the relevant period up to the 3% cap. Query- who was the seller?

This means that Somers and its associates can’t now buy more (under the 3% creep rule) during the next 6 months, unless they launch a formal takeover. However, they could increase by a small percentage if MME issued shares under a DRP and other shareholders took cash instead of shares (probably unlikely, but small % anyway). A more interesting possibility is if MME decided to have another equity raising, and Somers agreed to underwrite it for more than its 23% prorata share. This would be allowed, providing it was a genuine equity raising with the dominant purpose of raising capital for MME, and not a contrivance to let Somers etc gain a big increase in its holding and circumvent the takeover law. Some large holders were heavily diluted by the two raisings in Oct 22 and May23, and might not want to stump up their full share of cash in any further raisings. It will be interesting to look at MME’s (unrestricted) cash levels and needs very closely, to see if it might need to raise more equity to fund expansion plans.