crikey - it's a feeding frenzy

at moment 7.5m traded.
who would have thought that sleepy old, illiquid WCL would ever see those numbers.
that's about 1.6% of issued shares.
and it probably is not any of the really big s/h, but smaller holders, given the 379 trades to date.

So its simply a risk/reward scenario again.

the downside is small, because L/B offer of 40c cannot go away until bid closes. And the chance that L/B will not keep any shares offered to it, if it doesn't reach its 50.1% is NIL imho. The fact that they committed $178m outlay without doing any d/d convinces me of that.

So then, it is all UPSIDE.

and the chances of a higher bidder are very real imho.

Santos and Mitsui will be very worried that L/B might jeopardise their very important GSA.
Santos needs the gas as shown by the favourable terms it gave WCL.
And Mitsui is keen to achieve its goal of increasing its production of gas in Aust. For the Japanese they would see the GSA as a natural hedge against the cost of gas they pay in Japan. And they will not be happy to see a foreign, inexperienced opportunist take over Operatorship of Meridian.
What of NHC? One would think they were not happy? They have a growing O&G division thru Bridgeport - so would not want to see WCL sold at bargain prices.

A higher bid surely is on its way?