gsa is an asset, page-15

Carbonman and Ushiva.

It really is very unfortunate that our ASX is now only concerned about maximizing income and profits and many very respectable commentators have put in writing that by allowing all of the "tricks" that generate that income, the ASX is shooting itself in the foot.
Instead of "increasing volume" as THEY claim, I have little doubt that they have definitely scared off very many punters AND investors to the detriment of the whole market. And to think that 70% of all volume on the DOW is conducted through "tricks"!!

Clearly, people are genuinely unwilling to blindly risk their money, as Carbonman correctly states, until "hard results" are announced or strongly anticipated (usually from insider knowledge).
The "players" take up blocking positions and also use tools such as "bots" to keep the market guessing. Who would want to blindly buy into such a market unless they had facts?
The "good old days" where a company drilling a highly prospective well used to attract huge volumes of "anticipation" money during the drill. It used to be the norm to buy on the rumour and sell on the news. There is very little "buying on the rumor" happening in this market because of the added risks presented by the "tricks" being allowed by the ASX.

But, WE have very little say in that and must use all of our research capabilities to try to make decisions. Ironically, it is probably not a bad thing and might save a lot of people, who just jump in with a hope and a prayer, from getting their fingers badly burned, as has so often happened with ICN.

I really am loathe to speculate too much on takeover talk, but, in my previous post, I believe that there is a viable scenario for those that consider that a BPT T/O might be a possibility. It cannot be discounted and the numbers are starting to fall into BPT's favour.
But, clearly, if we consider BPT, then we must also consider STO. That, is probably more logical than BPT. STO has a market cap of $11.1 billion when BPT's is "just" $1.6 billion. I've said it before that STO could chew up both BPT and ICN and spit them out IF they were so inclined. And why wouldn't they be? They have recently said that they are delighted with their own shale gas discoveries in the C.B. and are going to spend much more money this year in this area than they had originally planned. Getting 218 and 855 would be a very natural and highly desirable fit for STO.

But, as Carbonman, also rightly states, if Halifax-1 delivers what is expected, IMO, 218 and 855 will not be a simple contest between STO and BPT, IF "others" want them.

Why not BG? They have spent billions getting a share of neighbouring properties and probably started the CSG "boom" in Australia and shale gas is certainly the place to be compared to CSG at the moment.
BPT has regularly stated that they want a senior partner to help finance both 218 and 855 and I have always said that that is why they were in such a hurry to drill Halifax-1 and changed their drilling programme to do so, even using a vertical drill instead of waiting a few extra weeks for the specially designed horizontal rig to arrive from the U.S.
They would have several larger companies running their eye over 218 and would already be impressed, but, having 218 continue into 855 would change the economics exponentially and make THEM (218 and 855) a much more attractive development proposition for the majors.

I would like to think that the outcome will be a major, including STO, buying equity in both 218 and 855 by way of J/Vs, say, 40% of each of them and pay for all of the development costs to earn their equity.Win/win/win.

218 and 855 together, even individually, if the numbers continue from what we have already seen from 218, will certainly become THE largest shale gas location in Australia, worth tens of billions of dollars and I would be MOST surprised if either BPT or ICN will give up their fantastic strategic advantage too cheaply. Shareholders who can hold their will should be in for a huge ride in coming weeks and months. But, let's get the next two weeks out of the way first, anything can happen.