RE:RE:RE:RE:Eric Sprott bought more shares?DrK,
My post (26754171) on 28 Sept 2017 may give you some numbers to work with. The numbers are approximate, but in general term, ES is the master puppeteer and can pull the appropriate strings for KL to take over NOV (when the time is right).
- Current count: KL: ~ 18.18% (25.830M shares); ES: say~10% for a total control of 28.18% (OS: 142Ms)
- After wt exercise: KL (ES is Chairman of BoD): 25.8 + 14Mwt/s = 39.8Ms (OS= ~170Ms, 39.8/170 = 23.4%; ES: 14Ms +14.5wt/s = 28.5/170 = 16.7% for a total of 24.4 + 16.7 = 41.1%.... all approximate, of course.
- other players: Quinton H: 2%, plus his BoD and Management %?, Creasy Group: 7.74%, last but not least NEM: 4.17%. Total: 2 + 7.74 + 4.17 = ~14% on top of 41.1% = potential 55%, plus a majority of the retails.
IMO, QH would side with ES; Creasy would go for the right PRICE; and NEM would say yes as well. NEM would want KL the medium-size fish, KL, to gobble up this overgrown minnow (NOV: Mkt Cap ~$0.9B, which is manageable for KL as a merger candidate). NEM (Mkt Cap ~$20B), as one of the top tier miners, would let KL do some heavy lifting first, but not for too long, then it would start wrapping its arms around KL (Mkt Cap ~$3.3B).
In summary, NEM should not be written off as a key player in this game. Perhaps, they were not dumb after all when they let their 11.83M shares go @ $1.6/s to KL (and then KL immediately offerred NOV an investment of $56M (14M shares @ $4.0/s). An investment $75M (average price of $2.9/s) for 18.18% of NOV is not bad a deal for KL. The same thing can be said about ES who seems to have more than 2 arms.
GH