The Punter's waiting for his cotton harvest

If the deal doesn't happen, the shares will drop just as quick and the cautious investor should probably sell now.

At the time of writing, people were queueing up to sell 220,000 NAM to anyone who would pay 48 cents a share, but the Punter is not one of them.

Dreyfus have indicated they'll pay 50 cents a share cash, plus a 1 cent dividend, but the Punter would incur a slight loss if he sold on the market. If he hangs on and the Dreyfus deal goes ahead, he will make a small profit of $110 - a return of about 6pc (including dividends) in the 13 months he will have held NAM shares.

He reckons the only thing that would stop the merger is a thumbs down from the authorities - the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Samuel Terry Asset Management (STAM), who hold 21.5 per cent of Namoi, have indicated that they will accept. STAM are Sydney-based investors who like to make a capital gain. Their acceptance suggests they don't expect anyone to make a better offer.

Dreyfus is already a joint venture partner with Namoi, and the merger was the preferred option emerging from the strategic review which Namoi initiated at the end of June. Not surprisingly, the Namoi board is in favour of the deal. The Punter just hopes the authorities like it.

Meanwhile, with the Wide Open Agriculture (WOA) share purchase plan closing next Wednesday, the Punter has decided to take up 20,000 shares, mainly because of the rather last-minute offer of free one-for-one, two-year 20-cent options. With WOA at 18 cents in the market, the options are almost "in the money" already.