Possible Margaux Takeout

Greg , as I mentioned in my earlier note , we have had a team crawling all
over the Margaux transaction both to see if we can reduce the outrageous cost
and also to see if we can find some earnings . We don't have your earnings
meeting today and I am not sure yet if it is going to be later in the week (
when I am out of the office ) so I thought I would give you a heads up on a
deal we are working on . It is early days and there are some significant
accounting and timing issues , but we believe that we have found a way to
reduce our cost's going forward and recognise potentially up to $100million
of earnings . In brief this will be by unwinding a liability in respect of an
existing swap for about $100m less than it will cost to settle the swap and
pay out the third party debt and equity holders and pay breakage costs . It
will involve us in taking back some incremental risk and in taking approx
$230m of debt on balance sheet -I believe this is all manageable . In
addition the transaction will require third party consents which could take
time , however we are aiming to close Q2 . We will brief Glisan and Causey
today as we need some support from them on a couple of issues . This is not
yet above a 50% probabilty but I am hopeful that this is doable . We will
keep you informed .
Michael