I flagged this following the 26 June 2019 announcement...

I flagged this following the 26 June 2019 announcement “Shareholder Update – India Project” – the WTE deal should have always been separated from the India Project when updating investors.

I’m not making any accusations, however how does it look when trading is suspended for X reason, then once X reason looks like a loser, an unrelated Y reason is introduced? It begs the question, is this a deal that would be considered if India was out of the blocks with no delays (suspension)? Or is this deal designed to dampen the poor NMDC outcome?

Given I can’t prove that the WTE deal is a deliberate distraction, I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say it isn’t’. That said, I’m certain the WTE deal should NOT be included as a reason for suspension.

The best way to think about it is like this. . .

On a speculative basis, the market priced in what it thought reflected the probability of the India deal going ahead with NLC and NMDC. Given this, a suspension was necessary to prevent a revision in valuations based on delays, which if the deal did go through would have been a great opportunity for market manipulators. Ultimately, the point here was to prevent the market from pushing the price down when there was a reasonable chance that it would recover in the short-term.

Now why shouldn’t the WTE be included in the suspension? This is easy – ECT have no idea what the market will price this deal at, as it was first announced on 6 May 2019, a time when trading was suspended. Therefore management can’t possibly make that same call about unnecessary short-term volatility, at least not without rampant speculation on what they think the WTE deal is worth in the current environment. Does management know what the market will price this at? I’m sure they can guess (or hope), but the fact is, they have no idea.

Overall, I appreciate the efforts to increase transparency through heightened levels of communication, with both shareholders and HC members alike. That said, the way this has been handled is a big step in the wrong direction, and in my opinion, is quite disappointing. Come on management! – keep communication clear and frequent, and don’t distract from the true focus of ECT.

ALL IMO