Break out happening, page-508

Yes, the 'creep' rule allows a company to buy 3% more stock in a six-month period after they reach 20%, without launching a takeover. This can go on for a long time, usually until the price gets to the point where the interested party sees sense in a takeover. I used to hold shares in a company whose biggest rival was also their biggest shareholder after four years of buying incrementally and is now at 30%. They have no intention of taking it over – quite content to sit back and watch the share price get smashed. That might seem counter-intuitive – why would a shareholder want their investment to dive and is no doubt helping that process along? Answer: because it's cheaper than buying the shares at the former high price.

I can see sense in Newcrest doing much the same. Why let the price of a company you're interested in buying rise? Especially when it's so easy to keep it low? AZY needs little help in that department. If you incrementally add to your holdings at low prices and just let the target company get on with their work, you can just wait to make a bid after they've shown more substantial results and are still a bargain. The inflexion point is often when the target company makes, or considers, big investments which the 'suitor' company may not want to end up owning. In the case of AZY, the decision on whether or not to build a processing plant would be one.