Following the recent company announcement, a little research...

Following the recent company announcement, a little research turned up the following news item published in the Townsville Bulletin, 28/5/15:

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/super-stadium-land-sale-stalls/story-fnjfzprw-1227373644918

To paraphrase a few lines from this news item:

NEGOTIATIONS over the sale of former railyard land for a superstadium in Townsville’s CBD have stalled because of the owner’s [Devine & Leighton JV] contractual obligation to remediate contamination on the site.
Aurizon, the previous owner of the 17.4ha “Southbank” site, is .... enforcing remediation conditions in its 2008 contract of sale.
....  According to a confidential council report, the remediation works demanded by Aurizon are not necessary for development of the stadium and convention centre.  The document states that council will use its compulsory acquisition powers if Aurizon continues to prevent the sale.

Now in looking at the recent DVN announcement, the last paragraph:

" Devine receives notice of intention to resume Southbank Townsville  A joint venture owned by Devine and Leighton Properties has received a Notice of Intention to Resume from Townsville City Council in relation to the joint venture’s Southbank Townsville site.  The resumption notice is to provide for the proposed new Townsville Convention Centre and Stadium development.  Devine will consult with its joint venture partner in determining its response to this notice.  Devine is not currently in a position to assess how the resumption might impact future performance; however, notes that a resumption may impact the carrying value of the Southbank asset"

So ..... am I totally confused?   Is the recent DVN announcement about something completely different to this news item published in the Media over 6 months ago, regarding a negotiated sale?  Because closing out this (negotiated?) sale would surely be good news.   Yet when I read the DVN announcement, it somehow appeared to me to be bad news?

The news item goes on to mention a price in the range of $8M - $12.5M .... This would be great additional cash-flow for DVN.

DVN is after all an asset play .... profits are always nice, but we really want to see that $1.55 in NTA converted to cash asap. In my view, positive cash-flow is king for this investment.

On a final note, why has DVN (CIMIC/Leighton?) not published the resumption/sale price?  Is it likely that Townsville Council has told them its buying the land, but omitted the price??  If I sold my shares to CIMIC for 75c, and it turned out next year that DVN is worth more, and good news was with-held, I think I'd be mighty angry.  Perhaps CIMIC actually doesn't know.  Being a city council transaction, the details are public domain.  I might give Townsville Council a call this afternoon and obtain the details.

As always .... do your own research.   I might be barking up the wrong tree here.  News print occasionally get their stories wrong.