RE:$1.74...I have a slightly different take on what happened. Ithaca approached the major shareholders, including Anthion/JEC as they needed a certain number of major shareholders on-board if they were to obtain approval of the Valiant take-over. Regardless of whether JEC/Anthion was approached, they got wind of the proposed take-over, and tried to block it and were unsuccessful. Several news reports/analysts suggested Ithaca over-paid for Valiant. My feeling is that Ithaca hadn't overpaid, particularly when taking into account the tax credits. But it is at least arguable they paid more than market, which may have been necessitated by the JEC/Anthion push for a shareholder meeting (once the deal was approved, there was really no point for JEC/Anthion to push forward). Also, no other bidder came forward for Valiant, and the break fee was extremely minimal, suggesting it was unlikely anyone saw the takeover as a steal. The reason I have been in this from the beginning is Stella, and I still believe it is going to be a huge suprise to the upside; with the Valiant take-over there are so many moving parts it is hard to get a grasp on. One other thing from the AGM, Iain mentioned that once they got in and saw how Valiant was being operated, they weren't particularly impressed (including drilling at unfavorable locations in a reservoir etc.), which is what he stated they had guessed before getting in for a closer look at operations.