DIO directors released the news to the market as soon as they...

DIO directors released the news to the market as soon as they could.. the shares were already in trading halt, but the notice to the ASX had to be in the form of a supplementary target statement and that takes time to prepare.

Probably Northgate were in breach of the confidentiality agreements that would have been entered into in announcing the deal was off via their website.. it should have been announced simultaneously with the announcement here. Poor form by Northgate.

Its unfortunate that the deal is off, but in the end the directors had to be sure it was better for shareholders than the AVO offer... probably Northgate changed the goal posts at the pointy end of the deal and it became too difficult for Dioro

Where to from here? no doubt AVO will pick up more stock now, but without 80% + acceptances they'll not reap the cash flow benefits they would in owning it outright.

I would have thought they are going to need to raise the offer to 1 for 2 to get the major shareholders over the line.. many will follow the lead of Baker Steele, the largest shareholder after AVO itself. I'd be BS accepts at the current offer.

To raise the offer to 1 for 2 means AVO will issue an extra 10 million (approx) shares - meaning there would be approx 276m rather than 266m AVO shares on issue after the bid - hardly a major concession to snare 100%.