"By that I mean the reason ARU was taken so cheap was the geopolitcal risk of Equador. Management and the Majority of shareholders endorsed the deal because they were frightened they would never get to go into production. There were no competing bids."

Thanks FirstG. I missed that point and a good one it was. It made for good fear mongering for investors to sell, but being in Canada makes for good incentive for majors to buy though, as you infer, it should inspire more than one bidder to be involved.