"Why? Perhaps to preserve an orderly market. Consider what might...

"Why? Perhaps to preserve an orderly market. Consider what might occur if an existing holder with say a couple of million dollars worth of shares was also able to buy a couple of million dollars worth of shares through being a client of Pato's. They could have dumped their existing shares today for some price above their guaranteed replacement price - and it wouldn't even effect the total amount of shares they'd end up with so there would be no change in substantial holding but they'd have had an incentive to sell down."

Well that might be the case but it was all disclosed in the prospectus so I see what you have described as par for the course and a normal price adjustment mechanism that wouldn't require a trading halt. If the existing holder dumped their shares to benefit from a cheaper offer that would reclect a lack of overall demand and therefore the share price should move down, conversly if the the placement was to new holders or current holders who wanted to increase their holding by taking on more shares then the price should move up. Normal market mechanisms as far as I'm comcerned. Esh