I would not be thinking about selling out yet if they had not come up with such a large prospective shareholding. I have been mulling it over some more and think they will get whatever shares they can even if its under 50% shareholding and then either make their offer unconditional thereby effectively proping up the share price or (given MacBank is working for them) simply let the share price fall back down and every few months add another 3% (or whatever the maximum level allowed under the Corporations Law) until they get to 50.1%.
Once they are at 50.1% they can saddle the company with debt etc and make it seem that MDL is garbage and depress the share price to the point that they can continue to mop up the remaining shares gradually or simply make another offer for the remaining shares at a lower price. ASIC would take no action to assist shareholders and eventually they can delist the company. Large shareholders may have the ability to litigate that the major shareholder has acted against the interests of other shareholders, but it is not something I would count on.
There were so many shares sold below the offer price of $1.75 that it does not surprise me that there are a lot of shareholders willing to accept the offer having made a substantial profit already and being unwilling to wait in an uncertain world for a much better price.
Good luck, and let us know eventually what you decide.
loki
MDL Price at posting:
$1.72 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
