@strejd There's no $1b floating around. You're mixing up a few...

@strejd There's no $1b floating around. You're mixing up a few things here. I do have experience in this area, so I'll provide a bit of info.

ISX was valued at $1b. That was based on the number of shares on issue multiplied by the share price. The share price is set by shareholders paying other shareholders - put simply, the share price is the mid-point of the price people are willing to sell and the price people are willing to buy. The company doesn't see that money (unless there's a share purchase plan or similar). If BHP issue shares at $10 (maybe 20 years ago) to A, and in time A sells to B for $20, and in time B sells to C for $30... BHP still only has the initial $10. The subsequent sales don't leave any cash floating around - A and B probably spent it. So there's no $1b floating around for ISX either.

As @Treba said, the 1:10 is also irrelevant. If you have a business worth $1m, and there are 1m shares, the shares are worth $1 each. If there are only 100k shares, the shares are worth $10 each. That's exactly what happened here. Rather than having 1b shares on issue for the new company, the directors decided there'd only be 100m shares on issue. Total value divide shares on issue equals share price.

Realistically, valuation on this one will be difficult. It looks like your cost base will be 95% ISXFEU and 5% ISX, but that's not confirmed, and I can't advise on that. Capital Gains Rollover, or Capital Loss realisation, is also something to discuss with a tax agent.

The ASX stuff, that's a separate issue and one that's been discussed ad nauseum. I don't blame the ASX for this as such though. I have questions for them sure - I'm not thrilled by all of it, but in my view, the directors have a lot to answer for.