Unless there was an equity transaction involved in the areement to be finalised, the orderly nature of the negotiation of an agreement should not be at risk - shareholders could be buying and selling shares while IAM management try to finalise various material commercial agreements IMO.
What are management doing when shares are trading - do they halt all sales activity and stop talking to customers in case they make an agreement while shares were trading?
If the agreement involves issuing share equity in a placement then it makes sense to halt trading. If it does not involve equity then it would make more sense for management to not say anything till they manage to conclude an agreement then announce what the agreement is. Other companies seem to be able to do this. The risk now is that IAM and the mystery other parties do not actually finalise any agreements and trading resumes. Why do they need to announce that they are attempting to do their job and why would they need a trading halt to announce that? I suspect the agreement involves a placement.
