trading halt, page-11

PickEm

"As with many companies atm the mv bears little relation to the likely long term value."

Agree, and explains the timing of COE's bid.

Anyone can see that most of COE's value lies in the cash, not a good basis for a strong bounce once this financial mess is over, and asset values recover some of their fundamental value.

IPM offers leverage to that bounce, plus leverage to the obvious imminent step up in production over the next 12, then 24 months.

COE need another 10mmbo P2 reserves just to match Selmo, but with the fiscal regimes and development lead time the NPV of any Tunisia or Indonesian discovery likely to be 1/4 or even much less, so they need at least 40 mmbo discovery. Given their JV stakes likely to be in the order of 25%, they are looking for a gross P2 of 160mmbo or so to match the Selmo asset by my rough (and optimistic) reckoning - a bit like "believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden" imho, to borrow Shervingtons lingo.

Easy to see why COE want IPM, easy to see why IPM holders shouldn't want COE script.

EL