After some posters mentioned that both companies are in a TH i did some digging through MLX announcements and here are some speculative thoughts, which may well be truly unfounded, but just for the fun of it, some facts:
-BB stated 1-2 years ago that he could see NST become a 1 Mio ounces producer in the medium term
-the "war chest" of NST is already very full and growing every quarter, shareholders have been wondering what management is planning with this money, dividend increases have been small considering and one can't help but wonder what management is planning to do with this ever growing pile of money.
-MLX openly communicate, that they want to split their company up into a gold division and a base metal miner, to "release more value for shareholders", as they see themselves undervalued relative to peers
-MLX stressed the fact, that they like to act counter cyclically in recent presentations (i.e. buy base metals now, sell gold with the POG near an ATH)
-Blackrock (NSTs biggest shareholder if i remember correctly) recently increased its MLX holdings to around 11.5% and would have a significant say in any possible future plans. They have also witnessed first hand, what NST management did with their gold mines over the past years and would probably have a lot of confidence in BB and team to oversee a larger portfolio
-Another big MLX shareholder (APAC-Group) recently stated that they consider parting with their MLX stake, which is still some 14.76 % These group even offloaded some 21.5 Mio shares on the market in July. APAC especially stated that with the AUD POG near an ATH they think it is a good time to cash in some profits in the gold sector.
-NST is in the process of selling Plutonic, which admittedly won't raise much cash directly now, but still, the company is increasing its already very large "war chest"
Some points which clearly contradict any possible MLX takeover by NST:
-the rumor that MLX plans a CR, as some poster just mentioned, which wouldn't make much sense, as a sale of the gold division would clearly generate a lot of cash for them
-MLX wouldn't be cheap right now and BB just now and repeatedly in the past stated that shareholder returns are the No.1 priority not headline ounces produced numbers
-and then there is the problem with the quarrel over Central Tanami between NST and MLX from just over a year ago
So, an interesting speculative thought right when the Diggers and Dealers conference is happening. BB always made the impression of being an ambitious CEO and a takeover of MLX would put NST back on the No.2 spot in the Australian gold sector and the goal of 1 Mio ounces of annual gold production with a healthy margin by 2018 would become a very realistic target.
Well, as i said, just some "fun speculation", but anyway we will find out soon enough, if there is any substance to this possibility, should be clear in the next 2-3 days considering both companies are in a TH and will commence trading on Wednesday or Thursday.
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