OPES investors agreed to a scheme whereby to loan on margin, they gave ownership of the shares to a third party.
They then took out a position offered by OPES on OPES terms and conditions. OPES were able to offer these positions using money lent to OPES by the third party using the investors shares as collateral.
The investors cash balances also didn't earn any interest.
The investors collateral was to be treated as a debt owed by OPES to the investor at the unsecured creditor level in the event that OPES went insolvent. This is clearly spelt out on the OPES website and the PDS.
OPES also warned investors in the PDS that they did not provide investment advice and that therefore each prospective investor should seek out independent financial advice.
OPES apparently offered margin loans on all ASX 300 companies, including many that the normal margin lending outfits wouldn't touch.
It was a high risk, complex arrangement.
No doubt when all the resource stocks were booming it made a lot of people a lot of money.
Now the market has turned.
The investors have been burned.
The investors want their money back.
The investors think they should be treated individually even though they agreed to be unsecured creditors.
Sorry, the scheme has failed, and now you will have to accept the consequences of YOUR actions, not anyone else's.
ANZ as owner of the shares have every right to dispose of them as they see fit, the same as you had every right not to get involved in this scheme in the first place.
You are now an unsecured creditor to the OPES company under administration, and will have to fall into line behind all the other creditors of OPES.
By the time the administrators, employees, secured creditors, taxation & government charges get taken out, you will then receive a distibution based on what is left.
This is no different than if you are owed money from a company that goes broke.
I don't understand why the OPES investors think they should be given preferential treatment now that things have gone bad. It doesn't work that way. Your individual position, what you owed, how long your were with OPES, what your investment was worth at the time the administrators were appointed etc. matter little now.
You will now only be entitled to recieve a proportion of what is left times what you were owed, in cents to the dollar.
Hopefully the ratio is high so the losses aren't huge.
If, and it's a big unknown at the moment, it can be proven that there was illegal or fraudulent activity then the OPES investors (now unsecured creditors) may be able to take action against those persons or entities that were at fault. I don't think this will bring much joy though.
And if any of the investors took the OPES advice and obtained licensed financial advice before getting involved, they may very well have a good case to sue their planner as well. I bet there's hardly any who sought advice though.
And that's another part of the problem.
People getting involved in complex risky investments without fully understanding the risks or the consequences.
Self managed super funds will be the next problem area, jsut you wait and see.
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