Agreed that it is counterintuitive, but there is no way Fung would let the April deadline slip by unless he received definitive assurrance, i.e., far beyond RM's"we are encouraged," that the JV was getting the permit.
Personally....the only "definative assurance" I would accept as an alternative to losing our legal right to file for arbitration by letting the deadline pass would be a buyout offer. Of course, as a shareholder, I would expect the deadline for a buyout offer to be well enough ahead of the April arbitration filing deadline so that if it was rejected by shareholders, we would still have time to file for arbitration. But that's just me. I seem to have overly high expectations of management.