Good comment GazzaFrom ESI's announcement on the 12th Nov, when...

Good comment Gazza

From ESI's announcement on the 12th Nov, when they deferred the AGM, it was noted that the negotiations were not yet complete. This could mean that they are still negotiating on the main deal, or it could mean that the deals done, and contracts just need to be signed.

When a number of parties are involved, it's often a difficult and time consuming process getting sign off from all parties.

Every party will have their own bank, and their own legal teams, their own technical experts, and their own boards of directors, and they will all need to agree on every word of the announcement and the associated contracts. They'll all be trying to maximise their own profit, while minimising their risk.


It'll only take one person wanting to change a sentence here, or a word there, and the whole process may get held up. Then everyone involved will need to approve the changes.

Once the negotiating teams finally agree - it may need to go to a Board of Director meeting for ratification.

If they were still at the "big Picture" stage, a couple of weeks doesn't seem like anywhere near long enough to get all the details agreed by all parties. However, ESI were confident that we would have something before the AGM, so this makes me think the deals already basically done, and all that is required is getting various Board sign off's. But even this may take some time. As we all know - the devil is in the detail. And Directors at Board meetings love asking curly questions.

I guess all I'm saying is this may take longer than ESI thinks. But the good news is - there's agreement in principle - now all parties just have to sign.