Pinned straw:
It’s a terrible outcome for anyone who hung their hat on Lev taking care of the little guy.
This is fascinating. Clearly Lev, who presumably knows more about the business than just about anyone, sees compelling value at 97c. Then again, judgement here could be clouded by ego -- and Lev perhaps has a surplus of that. He's also been involved in all manner of legal disputes and tiffs over the years, not all of which could be considered rational.
With an existing shareholding of over 50%, it seems like this is a done deal. And maybe even presents an arbitrage opportunity (there's a 4.3% premium on the current market offer price of 93c).
One of the best things about being a public company is access to capital, and ANO has only $325k in cash. It is CF positive and has $35m in net tangible assets, but presumably Lev feels it can be self funding, or he can meet any potential shortfall himself or find a suitable lender.
Anyway, interesting stuff. But as @AlphaAngle has said, not a great outcome for other shareholders..
A fascinating case study.
The share price has now round-tripped over a 5 year period. While Lev has increased his stake from 44.5% to 51.4% over the same period at higher prices than where it is now. He's done it through a combination of buying on market, rights issues that he underwrites, and dividend reinvestment plans.
As small-microcap investors, we love management with skin-in-the-game, are highly aligned, are highly incentivised, and with a previous track record in business success (Tamawood). As @Strawman mentioned, a lot of the time we presume that management know more than we do, and have better judgement when they accumulate stock.
However post-2019, the company has missed pretty much all the guidance numbers its given, got into a dispute with the ASX over price sensitive announcements and trading halts on a covid mouth spray that didn't eventuate into any revenue, threatened to delist from the ASX in favour of the Nasdaq, provided numerous reasons for slow sales (reduced overseas travel during 2020-22, opening up overseas warehouses), etc and so forth.
This is an example where having highly aligned management doesn't always work out.
I should add the intended proposal from Lev is to acquire an additional 18.4% of the shares outstanding to take him up to 70%. So it's a partial takeover proposal, and I guess the stock will still continue to trade on the ASX.