'why would they accept such a low offer?'Because at the moment...

'why would they accept such a low offer?'

Because at the moment it's the only offer that's free from conditions.

Saputo's current bid (I'm not talking about what may come after the trading halt) is conditional on 50.1% which may be hard to achieve the way the register is. (BGA 18% MG 17% Lion 10%)

MG depends on an application to the Australian Competition Tribunal, which could take months and is an untried approach. (it's not reasonable to compare competition issues with foreign takeovers. Neither the ACCC or ACT can be fast tracked by government)

The value of the BGA bid, of course, depends on the level of its share price. My original thought was that everything above 4.00 derived from Fonterra's buying. Their target was 10%, and so far they've only bought 6%. The WCB Board are no doubt going to reiterate their point about shaky valuation for BGA, but I'm seeing broker estimates that validate at least current sp levels. These depend on BGA being successful with their WCB bid.

Let's see what happens next, but I wouldn't count too much on BGA being a spent force. It's possible that Fonterra has a hand to play, yet.