takeover bid -by shareholders!, page-5

Hi Beast,

I confess that my heading isn't exactly what I meant.

I don't want the board to be taken over by shareholders, only the one Billion (now 1.35B)conditional raising.

I don't belong to the camp that thinks that MR should be given the boot, as this would be destabilising.

In fairness to him:
- He was in favour of selling at over $4.00 per share for the company, but was outvoted.
- He is also prepared to "put his money where his mouth is" and find several hundred million to invest further.
- His biggest error of judgement was in not appreciating the magnitude of the global crisis (he's not alone) and subsequent credit freeze. If the turnaround happened 6 months earlier, everyone would have hailed him as a visionary who didn't "sell the farm" under pressure.

My point is that, like him, ALL SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF AVOIDING DILUTION -and be able to sell the options (as in RIO) if we are unable to, or elect not to.

If at the EGM, an alternative underwritten proposal for the conditional 1.35B is tabled, rather than being seen as destabilising, it would be a further vote of confidence in Asciano and it's assets.

Perhaps it could be raised to 1.9 Bil and wipe out company debt altogether -further enhancing security of Asciano in the global financial market.


John S.