Aussie Broadband have released a further announcement regarding their stake in Superloop.

1. They've now submitted an application to the Singaporean authority, IMDA, for the Superloop shares they've already acquired.
2. They have applied to the Federal Court of Australia to restrain Superloop from forcing them to dispose of the shares

One possible outcome here was that with the initial acquisition being rebuffed, and the recent increase in Superloop share price, Aussie Broadband could dispose of their Superloop stake for a tidy profit. That now seems unlikely, at least in the near term.

Aussie Broadband have announced they are being directed to dispose of some of their interest in Superloop.

From the announcement:

Under the constitution of Superloop (Superloop Constitution), there are certain provisions regarding the acquisition of Superloop shares which derive from regulatory requirements relating to the Singapore Facilities-Based Operations (FBO) telecommunications licence held by Superloop’s Singapore-based subsidiary (Superloop Singapore). Specifically, the Superloop Constitution provides that a person must not, alone or together with their associates control, 12% or more but less than 30% or, 30% or more, of the voting power in Superloop without the prior written approval of the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA).

Superloop claim Aussie Broadband knew full well about this requirement, since their prior acquisition of Symbio would have involved dealing with the Singaporean IMDA. Aussie Broadband claim their failure to comply was 'inadvertent'.

Inadvertent is an interesting word to use. They can't claim `unaware` since they clearly should have been aware.

Either they overlooked this requirement, which suggests poor strategy, or they were aware and figured it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. I'm inclined to believe it was the latter.

I'm uncertain how to proceed here. The prior acquisitions have been successful but I didn't buy ABB expecting a series of acquisitions. I'm not sure how to evaluate this (seemingly) aggressive approach to acquisitions. That's not a value judgement: it's probably a fine strategy for the appropriate company, just not my cup of tea.

In particular, I'm wondering:

1. How important is this acquisition to ABB?
2. If it was important, have they bungled it? Or was this a strategic manoeuvre beyond my view (ie. they must have known about the IMDA requirement) ?
3. The price is continuing to drop, yet their holding in Superloop has appreciated. If the price looks good can I get comfortable with where management is headed?

Still thinking on this one.