I agree with your observations, except perhaps with “minimal...

I agree with your observations, except perhaps with “minimal friction”. The degree of friction depends on what RG is willing to offer, and he took a financially and legally very aggressive approach in the (first) bid. After a long time, he shook loose the “easy” sellers and now has a group of much tougher investors to deal with. As I and others have said, I believe that he miscalculated with 84c. If he had offered 90c he may well have got over the 90% takeover threshold and then been able to wrap it up quickly. I suspect that may have been as much about ego as it was about money.

I agree strongly with your second point- I don’t expect a bid before the TIC litigation is settled one way or other, in or out of Court. This is partly the commercial reality but also it would be legally very difficult for RG and TIC to agree on settling the litigation as being in any way interdependent with a bid and its pricing, because that “benefit” wouldn’t-and couldn’t- be available to other shareholders. The future of any takeover of the minorities will crucially depend on whether RG can persuade the TIC parties with 6.5% to sell their shares, and at what price.