You are right. I agree with you. I don't think Ron set out to...

You are right. I agree with you. I don't think Ron set out to invest in FLC with a tax loss in mind from the outset. He genuinely wanted to do good with business. After all, he spent considerable effort to get the Ivory Coast project for FLC. My earlier comments bore out by putting anecdotal evidence together. This is what I surmise.

One possible scenario could be since starting up in RWL Water in 2011, there must been other opportunities he wanted to take advantage of, or came up for sale. Art for example. https://neuegalerie.org/ronald-s-lauder-collection. To buy art, now a really viable asset class for the uber-rich, he had to sell something. One or two of his other older investments (Estee Lauder shares hit an all time high, for instance) could have attracted a hefty capital gains tax.

Years ago, we calculated his cost was $1.60 from the Emefcy RWL merger documents. Selling at 4cts would have crystallized $258m of losses for him which he could use to offset capital gains.

Furthermore, selling his shares now to the management would put FLC in for a good chance of succeeding especially in the USA where 40% of global capital spend for water will be, notwithstanding some of the mess that the CFO needs to clear up. Maybe selling at 4cts was enough to incentivize Doug to come out of retirement and make a go at it.