A few days ago I posted that my initial reason to vote against...

A few days ago I posted that my initial reason to vote against the merger was that I have no trust in the ex-Goldman Sachs banker, Pall Graves, and believe that as soon as he gets his hands on Arcadium Lithium he will start screwing over Allkem shareholders.

A second reason I have voted "against" the merger is that I think the Chair of Allkem, Peter Coleman, has pulled a dog act by holding back conducting the vote until only a few days before Christmas. I reckon a fair number of AKE shareholders who leave it to the last moment to cast their vote will end up either forgetting about it or just not bothering.

Remember that there are only two ways to reject the current proposal for Allkem to merge: I will refer to them as the 75% rule and the 50% rule.

It is mainly up to the big institutional holders to defeat the 75% rule - which is that at least 75% of votes cast need to be in favour of the merger, and any less than that then the proposal is defeated. I see there are some institutions holding their ground on the proposed Origin Energy takeover so not all of them just roll over.

However for all the tens of thousands of mum and dad investors in Allkem out there where we can more likely have most influence is in the 50% rule - which is that at least half of shareholders who vote must vote in favour of the merger, and any less than that then the proposal is also defeated.

I think it would be tragic if the 50% rule was only just met, say with 51% of holders voting in favour of the merger, when there were say 2-3% of holders who had every intention of voting against the merger but got distracted by Christmas shopping or end of year drinks. Therefore I suggest to you that ...

IF YOU INTEND TO VOTE THEN VOTE EARLY

And if you do vote then indicate your dissatisfaction with being screwed over by selecting the AGAINST option.