RE:Stop Crying!!!!!!No crying here - just recognition that fundamental securities regulation laws and corporate law run counte to this sketchy scheme cooked up by Rio to save a failing bid for my shares.
The dissent remedy has costs for individual shareholders which immediately creates an uneven playing field. A little shareholder with a few thousand dollars in TRQ has the same transactional costs of filing and following-up as Pentwater and SailiinStone, who have tens of millions of worth at stake. Their arbitration cannot be coat-tailed as some seem to think. It sets up the probability of a varied compensation in the context of a T/O bid (as an arrangement, going-private transaction) where the proxy solicitation didn't disclose the nature of the position Pentwater/Sailingstone are now in, nor give the full notice period to consider what is now a materially altered bid. You know there will be many shareholders out there who don't closely follow the news, maybe they have a small position in a retirement account, they looked at the proxy circular in good faith, gave a yes vote by proxy, and are unaware of what any sensible person can now see, that is that the potential for two-tier compensation and the largest minority shareholders abstaining from voting will tilt the bid to approval (potentially). The company has a duty to fully inform them, to consider whether those proxies can be voted in good faith in these circumstances.
Anybody who doesn't want delay can sell at the discount to market today. Some of us who voted no at the outset, in part because of the representations of Pentwater and Sailingstone on value, do not want to get railroaded by this sleazy gambit. And we shouldn't have to pony up a nickel in transaction costs under settled securities law to get the same compensation for our shares an any other minority shareholder.
That ain't crying. The market and the management of public companies is supposed to be governed by laws that ensure the company is run in the best interests of all the shareholders, equally. Enough is enough, this is way offside.
And ... for those of us that felt the $43 offer was too low, watch gold and copper rising now already, above TD Bank's long term assumptions for the same, with a lot of disinterested (to this transaction) opinion of economists and copper market commentators saying there are significant structural shortages of copper expected for several years to come - right when the least discounted cashflow from Lift One should be coming into TRQ's treasury. The only rush occurring here is Rio Tinto doesn't want TRQ to go to market for an equity raise. I personally would rather wait and watch the cooper market make a mockery of TD's fairness valuation far in excess of any potential equity dilution.
Its business, not crying.
cg