Ann: TOV: AUQ Declaration and Orders Final, page-13

Now to give you an idea of how much work went into getting us to this point -

My Application to the Panel was 23 pages - plus all the attachments of announcements etc. The quality of the application is very important - because the Panel review the application to decide whether there is any merit in what is being raised - and whether it is something that is within the limits of what the Panel can hear. I don't know the actual statistics, but from what I saw I would guess that around 80% of all applications to the Panel never get past this stage - and not being a lawyer and really having no idea what I was doing I just had to give it my best shot and hope that it all made sense and aroused the Panel's interest - and that it met the requirements for them to investigate and commence a hearing. Thankfully I somehow got past this point as the Panel decided to hear the matter.

The next thing that was required was a submission on the interim orders that I had asked for - another four pages

The next thing was I had to provide a rebuttal to some preliminary submissions from Alara - nine more pages

Somewhere about at this step I had to write another document for the Panel - another four pages

Then the Panel issued what is called their Brief - which contains questions addressed to each party - my answers went to ten more pages

Then there was rebuttals to Alara's answers to the questions that the Panel had asked them - 12 pages

Then there was a submission about another part - three more pages

Then the Panel provided a supplementary Brief with more questions - another ten pages

Then the rebuttals to Alara's answers to their supplementary questions - thirteen more pages.

So to get to the point where the Panel reached a decision and made their announcement took me 88 typed pages - and a hell of a lot of work! But it wasn't just me - the other three guys who joined the application also did a ton of work and made their own submissions on some of it too.

Is the Panel's process fair? Were the Panel fair to us? And did we get a fair hearing? Yes to all three. As you can see though - it is a very long process that requires a lot of work throughout to get a good result - and it was not just the typing of the 88 pages - there was an enormous amount of research and reading of old announcements, and cross-checking things that are said in submissions to see if they match what was said in old announcements etc. At times my brain was beyond fried - and now that it is all over - I can't even remember what days were like before I was up until 2am every night typing and researching and so forth - I am actually struggling to find normality again now.

Would I take Alara back to the Takeovers Panel again if needed - well yes - because otherwise all of this work would have been for nothing - but lets hope that doesn't become necessary. Certainly though if we have to do it again then we are now a lot better prepared, we have much more knowledge of the process etc - so it will be a bit easier second time around.