Wrong again.
The SOI/perf share issue is the only thing that matters IRT the ISX suspension.
Criminal investigations into operational conduct only affects the share price.
It does not affect who can buy/sell how many shares.
For ASX - or any market operator - to perform their function as a share exchange platform, they must:
1. Allow buyers to buy from sellers.
2. Allow sellers to sell to buyers.
Buyers are owners of money.
Sellers are owners of shares.
Now, if we sow doubt into the ownership structure/SOI, then who are the sellers?
Once a trade has concluded, what do the buyers own?
Let's say Bob is a buyer, and one of the perf share recipients is a seller.
Bob has money, and the perf share recipient has perf shares, which are ordinary shares that were granted to him via the perf hurdles.
Bob buys the shares, which happen to be perf shares from this seller.
He's not aware, as he just put in an order at $x.yy, which happened to meet the seller's execution price, ASX matched the buy and sell order, and the trade was executed.
Later on, lets say ASIC come around and say - "nuup, those shares are not valid."
What happens at this point in time?
Does the seller get stripped of shares in the equivalent # as the perf shares issued?
If he no longer has those shares, does Bob lose his shares?
How will 300m+ shares of the company be disposed of with those being free-traded on the market?
This whole scenario creates massive chaos, which the ASX must clean up, as it facilitated the trade between the seller and Bob.
Hence, market operators, irrespective of who it is, will never allow this scenario to play out, as:
1. It's a massive headache.
2. They need to clean it up if they do let it happen as Bob will have a case against the market operator.
So in essence, we won't be trading until one of 3 things happen:
1. An escrow agreement is reached between ASX and ISX to ASX' satisfaction. ISX have no bargaining chip here, as ASX will not be willing to bear any risk in regards to the above scenario and will want guarantees that they don't need to deal with the mess if it occurs.
2. ASIC conclude their investigation and say all perf shares are good.
3. ASIC conclude their investigation and say the perf shares need to disappear.
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