absolutely - it's all hypothetical of course but the company...

absolutely - it's all hypothetical of course but the company wouldn't issue shares to BioMira at the moment cause they don't need cash till 2007 and probably won't anyway if a few milestones come through ot the SP goes above the option strikes in the next year or so.

So 'if' BioMira want more shares in PRR their options are -

Buy on market (no point in doing that before now as it would have driven the price they covert their CancerVac holding higher)

Approach existing major shareholders to buy their stakes (not likely for success as I said because all have basically bought this year (OK - Dec last year) or later and all at 10-12c so unless one needs to get out they would have been told to get lost.

Wait and see if the ARI followed suit and convert their minority subsidiary holdings into PRR shares and then approach them to buy some or all of their shares (probably the best or most likely option).

That said I don't expect BioMira will do anything - I doubt we will know the real motive but it is fun hypothesising.

My original point is this - as a takeover defense having all your assets in subsidiaries with a minority shareholder but greater than 10% holding is a good deterrant as is owning more than 10% in a listed company - in the end a fully listed company with 100% ownership of all its subsidiaries can at least be bid for on market which helps general shareholders - with the current structure anyone wanting to buy one of the subsidiaries must negotiate with both PRR management and the ARI - not an easy path.

I don't expect a T/O but if BioMira and the ARI both convert into PRR shares then one can happen far more easily and BioMira is a possible predator - when I last looked they had about 30-40m in cash.

As dogbark pointed out they could have interest in Panvax too - something is brewing there in the infectious diseases area but again I can't get any good oil on it. Something about biodegradable nanoparticles instead of polystyrene and a large partner but I am always swamped in my scietific knowledge let alone getting the possible applications right!