what's "the problem", page-7

I do not hold MLD, and neither am I in a position to buy, because I have too many shares in this space with other companies (NWH, BYL, DOW and MND), but I have liked MLD since it first floated, so I glance at it occasionally. Under the circumstances, it does not warrant much of my time.

In the recent special-dividend-cum-capital-raising exercise, Hartley was given 26.2 million shares at $2.25 that were eligible for the 30¢ special dividend, which had a franking credit worth 12.86¢. This means Hartley in effect paid $1.821 ex special dividend, and that date was 18/03/2014. The SP closed at $2.06 on 18/03/2014. Hartley may be skipping out with the profit, which is keeping the SP low, or it may not be selling. If I held MLD, I would wonder about this.

I hold FFI, and it too paid a fully franked special dividend (25¢) to reduce its accumulated franking credits to shareholders, but to repair its balance sheet, FFI included the special dividend in its DRP. Consequently, we shareholders had the option of not diluting our holdings. Superficially, this seems to be a more investor-friendly approach.