IP company Xenith’s (ASX:XIP) rich suitor has ponied up with more stuff, if not more money, and now it’s up to rival QANTM (ASX:QIP) to match it.

IPH (ASX:IPH) is now offering the equivalent of $2.15 a share to Xenith holders.

  • Scroll down for more corporate shenanigans.

The new offer is for $1.28 cash and 0.1261 IPH shares valued at $6.90.

The old offer was the same amount of cash and 0.1056 IPH shares.

The ball is now in QANTM’s court to make a better offer than their merger of semi-equals, a ruse designed specifically to prevent IPH from taking over not Xenith, but QANTM.

The QANTM deal values Xenith shares at $1.598, and will give that company’s shareholders 1.22 QANTM shares for every one they own in Xenith.

IPH started out trying to buy QANTM IP (ASX:QIP) last year. That company turned to Xenith as a white knight — a friendly merger — only for IPH to buy 19.9 per cent of Xenith this year to block the merger, and is now bidding for it instead.

But in mid-March something changed: Xenith said it might be open to discussing IPH’s offer, coyly couching it as simply doing its duty by shareholders.

IPH sniffed the weakness and just over a week later Xenith postponed a shareholder meeting for investors to approve the QANTM merger in order to get a bit closer to the rival bidder.

IPH says its new deal gives Xenith shareholders a tiny bit more of a stake in the $1.4bn company after a deal is done.

Qantm has three days to make a better offer.

 

Read on to get a bit more corporate action:

Doray Minerals has gone, removed from the ASX today after Silver Lake Resources’ (ASX:SLR) successful takeover.

Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:PBT), who you may better remember before today as Prana, says it has the first $US7.5m from strategic investment by US investor Life Biosciences. Life is leading a $45m investment in the biotech minnow after Prana bailed out on Alzheimer’s and into Parkinson’s.

Frontier Resources (ASX:FNT) director Anthony Hickey has abruptly resigned, with no reason given for his departure.

Also gone are Affinity Energy (ASX:AEB) directors Peter Hatfull and Ramasamy Venkatesh. Mr Hatfull was the managing director since listing but stepped down for personal reasons in November 2017. Affinity is still suspended as it tries to fill an urgent funding gap.

And Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR) managing director Stefan Murphy has quit to CEO at Nathan River Resources, which wants to restart an iron ore mine in the Northern Territory.

ASX price watchers have had a busy 24 hours, issuing at least six price queries to PPK Group (ASX:PPK), Netlinkz (ASX:NET), Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) — again — Kogi Iron (ASX:KFE), Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) and Intra Energy (ASX:IEC).

Hastings Technology Metals (ASX:HAS) is running a $16.5m capital raise to spend on a 380 room accommodation village, earth works on the WA rare earths mine site, and payments for equipment.

Beacon Minerals (ASX:BCN) is also running a cap raise, this time for $7.1m to complete the construction of the 500,000 tpa gold processing facility at the Jaurdi Gold Project by June 2019.

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) also wants money, raising $4m from US and Australian sophisticates tp expand a maiden drilling campaign at the Hombre Muerto Lithium project in Argentina.

And finally, the codfather of all fish stocks Murray Cod (ASX:MCA) wants $6m from you to build a new processing facility and keep expanding to meet growing demand.