With all due respect, I don't understand posts like this. What do you mean that
"it might indicate the books are not flash as a stand alone business"? This is not a widgets company or a consumer retailer with cooked books or unrealisable inventories carried at book value that need to be impaired. It's a mining company with stated reserves and resources. And most of the original resource Cosmos work was done by prior owners. WSA in its current state is very different to Panoramic circa 2018/2019, which had major issues that were going to need a lot more capital to resolve.
It's not like prior to this potential bid IGO wouldn't have done background due diligence on WSA, or on Cosmos when it was for sale in 2015, or on Panoramic in 2019 when they were previously trying to complete a hostile takeover. If they didn't, they need a new business development team.
I personally don't think AF wants to take-over WSA but I wouldn't have a clue really. If you look at their history, they don't get into bidding wars, and if they do, they don't usually end up as the highest-bidder. Their substantial shareholder notice indicates that they've been in WSA for months, at least since the placement in March when most other institutions got in. I think he just likes nickel, but again, I have no idea and am just speculating.
It's interesting to look back at the prior IGO hostile bid for Panoramic. They bid at a +42% premium to the last Panoramic closing price in a 100% share deal. They tried to bypass the company's major shareholder (Zeta) to get to 50.1% ownership of Panoramic. PB notes that they did it to get access to due diligence materials, but who knows. In the end, they didn't even get to a 10% acceptance rate (e.g. the whole bid was a massive fail if they actually wanted PAN). In hindsight, walking away was a good move (the IGO guys are absolutely not dummies).
This link below leads to an interesting article from last year about how Peter Bradford thinks about nickel, EVs, Panoramic, etc.
https://www.miningnews.net/ceo-of-the-year/news/1391315/mnn-awards-busy-bradford-making-difference-at-igoNote in that interview that he thinks there is something bigger than Savannah to be found in their Kimberley ground. I think there are other interviews where he calls Savannah the closest thing to Nova in WA (this is not a direct quote but I believe he says something like this, I just can't find the link at the moment).
If he wants WSA (and indirectly PAN), cool, pay up. I'd be happy to see management pass over to IGO. If not, I'm very happy to continue owning WSA.
