Not at all. I would imagine ARL and AUZ were likely receiving...

Not at all. I would imagine ARL and AUZ were likely receiving offers from a number of interested parties. ARL decided to go for the KPMG route likely as 1) It allows greater number of potential partners to get involved with the process with KPMG's network thereby increasing competition 2) Providing the bidders as much information as possible to have a binding agreement prior to signing with a partner allowing them to bid more aggressively

As you can see now with AUZ there is still a question of whether SKI will pull the trigger on project funding etc. because there are still milestones to be met. According to the latest presentation, ARL announce their partner there they will make their investment decision within a few months of having a strategic partner.


From SKI's perspective AUZ is a great deal - 1) If the BFS etc is successful they can jump in and fund it and secure material if not they can walk away. 2) AUZ are locked into SKI and if the BFS was extremely good they cannot go with another party even if that other party was willing to offer them a better deal.