I imagine that NAK's management and potential partners have been tee'ing up 2 different versions of the agreement.  The first is under the current tax law and a second set is under the new tax reform.

There are key tax provisions that massively impact the NPV.  For those of you that haven't worked with NPV models, basically future cash flows (after tax impacts and everything) are projected into future years and then discounted to present values to equalize the time value of money (models also use a discount rate for investment purposes to measure risk).

2 Key Provisions that lead to a much higher NPV & buy in (& deal price):

1.  Full expensing of equipment & depreciable assets.  (Immediate & full tax deduction)
2.  Lowering of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%  (HUUUGE!)