A couple of points de novo. first, I'm pretty sure the 5...

A couple of points de novo. first, I'm pretty sure the 5 December trial date was the court date for the NTMA hearing, not for the M&DC case. By my reading the M&D is still ongoing with "judgement reserved" on some of the issues raised at the last directions hearing. Secondly, I don't believe the filing of an NTMA in both names would necessarily have any bearing on the M&DC case. We have seen over the last two years that filing a NTMA doesn't give any sort of protection, otherwise B4M would be all Quasar's now.

Nevertheless, I tend to agree with the general sentiment that a resolution to the M&DC case is likely to be part of the mediated agreement, and that it likely won't go to trial.