I think any takeover/merger will involve an existing ASX listed company and involve mainly a share deal rather than cash. In the last few years there has been very few genuine takeovers imo. Once there was an offer put forward by a predator with a small premium, which was almost always rejected out of hand, forcing the potential acquirer to pitch an offer with a reasonable premium attached.
These days it seems there are deals worked out before management announce friendly mergers without any real premium built in. I think the game has changed and directors line themselves up loads of preference shares that are automatically paid out upon change of control, therefore allowing them to get an easy payday without having to actually achieve anything of value for the shareholders.
On top of that, there seems to be deals that allow directors of the target company to keep their jobs rather than previous times when takeovers were often hostile and resulted in them losing their well paid jobs which they were prepared to fight to retain before but are now included in friendly deals.
This sort of deal allows for a smoother transaction and means there's no-one working for shareholders interests.
That's my take on how most deals have been handled over the last few years. One that didn't follow that pattern was AOP which saw a bidder war between RMS and GOR, which GOR played well by upping the bid price and then selling their substantial holding in AOP at a premium to RMS.
The share ratio is getting wider by the week as producers benefit from high gold prices whilst explorers/potential developers share prices stagnate.
EG 12 months ago RMS was $1.70 and RXL .23, so a ratio of about 7.5
Today RMS is $2.20 and RXL .13, a ratio of around 17
Time is on RMS' or any other potential acquirer's side. They are in no hurry to pull the trigger on an offer. The ratio will continue to favour those making money above those spending it. RXL needs a catalyst to alter the current pattern, otherwise it will be more of the same imo.
RXL Price at posting:
13.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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