The Battle for Cardinal Resources – DJs and the Engineers

In 2012, an unsolicited mysterious takeover offer emerged for David Jones (DJs) from an unknown firm, EB Private Equity, the details  of which were leaked through a newly created investor blog.

The address of EB Private Equity was published in the mainstream press as being little more than a post office box in a back street in Newcastle, UK, “wedged between a wig shop and a noodle restaurant”. The purported bidder had limited bona fides and clearly did not have the funds to make the AU$1.65 billion offer to the shareholders of DJs. A similar situation has recently arisen in the hotly contested bid for Cardinal Resources, which this author wrote about a couple of weeks ago.