news item from The Australian, page-9

It does seem very odd that China would bother insisting on the price being lowered 7 cents when you consider the overall cost of taking over the company and the CAPEX of phase one. The savings from 57c to 50c are almost immaterial. To me, this strategy says that the Chinese are extremely confident that they are the only player left standing in the game to develop Mbalam. If other suitors were around or the threat of other suitors becoming involved was real, would the Chinese bother trying to save such a small amount of money and threaten SDL scuttling the deal and moving forward with another suitor? I highly doubt it. I believe the Chinese must be exceedingly confident that there are no other suitors interested.