Surely it must getting close before the vendors are...

Surely it must getting close before the vendors are consulted?

Last sundays weekend paper had a market analyst guru from macquarie with only a HOLD reco on COA,its the same firm currently assisting COA with the strategic review or possible selldown to predators and potential private equity players

of most concern i would think to current and would be stakeholders is the time delay that this review is taking before its released to the market affectively transforming COAl scrip into a quasi option/derivative

the findings of the review have the possibility of having an immediate affect on the scrip price of COA

the COA business and more importantly the current favourable cyclical conditions are well and truly documented

what might potentially be delaying the release is either Macq bnk (MBL)having difficulty coming to grips with the long list of bolt on acquisitions made by COA of recent times or worse still how to extract higher value in the face of declining NPAT and forecasts

according to ninemsn heres the overall concencus of what other broking firms think:

Current 2.5 2.4 2.3 1 = Strong Buy
7 Days Ago 2.5 2 = Mod. Buy
30 Days Ago 2.5 3 = Hold
60 Days Ago 2.5 4 = Mod. Sell
90 Days Ago 2.7 5 = Strong Sell

Contributing analysts
ABN AMRO, CITIGROUP, UBS, MACQUARIE RESEARCH EQUITIES, SOUTHERN CROSS EQUITIES LTD., CREDIT SUISSE - AUSTRALIA, E.L. & C. BAILLIEU STOCKBROKING LTD., DEUTSCHE BANK SECURITIES, FORESIGHT SECURITIES, LINWAR SECURITIES PTY LTD, BBY LTD., GOLDMAN SACHS JB WERE, JPMORGAN, AUSTOCK LIMITED

Liquidity
2005 2006 2007
Averagebuy/sellspread 0.6% 0.5% 0.3%
Annualturnover 69.4% 70.5% 204.0%
Top20Sh/holderO/ship 55.7% 57.9% --%

Forecast eps trend:

30-06-07 30-06-08
EPS(c) PE Growth EPS(c) PE Growth
Median 40.7 13.7 4.1% 45.2 12.4 11.1%
High 43.8 12.8 12.0% 51.6 10.8 17.8%
Low 39.1 14.3 -0.0% 41.6 13.4 6.4%
7 Days Ago 42.4 46.9
30 Days Ago 43.1 48.5
60 Days Ago 43.1 48.6
90 Days Ago 43.1 48.3
Number of est. 14 14

Shareholders selling:

21-09-06 AMP Limited
08-11-06 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd
25-01-07 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd
23-04-07 Barclays Global Investors Australia Limited 18-18-05-07 AXA Group 5.78%