Pressure to bid weighs on GRAM

Below is taken from an article in The Australian on the 2nd September titled Pressure to Bid Weighs on GRAM - a week old now (sorry), but hopefully a useful update on where negotiations are up to - it has felt a little quiet recently, and secondary to this perhaps, and also the price of copper decline, the share price has now fallen below GRAM offer price.

GRAM has been conducting due diligence since June and PanAust has invited “several’’ other groups in to the data room to inject some competitive tension in to the process. There has been no update since. But speaking after the recent release of its interim profit report, PanAust managing director Gary Stafford said: “I suspect that through September we will be having some serious discussions with parties other than GRAM.’’ He said GRAM had also been signalling “serious intent”. “And I would like to think that come the end of September that those groups that were behind GRAM would have caught up, and we would hope that GRAM has progressed as well.’’ PanAust is looking to the expected strong growth in its cashflows from its copper-gold operations in Laos to help fund Frieda River. There is also the potential for the capital burden to be reduced by the PNG government taking up a 30 per cent stake in the project.