I've been collecting these shares on a off for the last 4 years! Origonally for the dividend, which used to be really good, still not bad as I carried on purchasing as the price dropping accordingly!

The shares went up 22% today - if I'm not carefully I could actually be showing a healthy profit on them!

don't say this often, but "Told you so!" .... Akzo all set to bid 670, so reckon ICI at 650+ to allow for time-lag and residual undertainty, with still the outside chance that Dow or Dupont will through their hats in the ring at the last moment, as happened with Corus

Congratulations to Cynic from reading this post back from today - a very good call.

My query is that with an indicative 670p + possibly 5-8p dividend as well, even with the competition commission threat is the current 640 sp too bearish.

Buying now if the above offer pans out gives a 5% return after costs, which possibly might have to wait for 3-4 months, but that's not bad against possibly a rough 2nd half for the market generally.

Am I being overly optimistic?

no you're not though with sp now at 640 you may think of better places to invest .... as a holder already i am very happy to sit back and wait

unless something extraordinary happens, the deal looks done and dusted @ 670 + 5 divi ..... likley completion in November ..... with sp at a silly 639, this is surely a very safe place to put money with an annualised return surely in mid teens