Watching this last night, I was not instilled with confidence in the 'vigilante' short sellers, as they expressed their ideas. While these short sellers appear to have unmasked some serious fraud with China companies listed in the U.S., I' m not sure that this gives them an unlimited licence to do this sort of thing wherever they wish to, as long as it is outside of the U.S.. Harnessing new global communication technology, short sellers are able to attack companies in other jurisdictions using what might be termed 'guerilla tactics', since in the short term there is nothing ASIC or ASX can do to prevent this. Short sellers can highlight and exaggerate an obvious weakness, which investors were already aware of, and had accepted as part of the trade off of investing in these sorts of assets. As it is doubtful that a U.S. based short seller could use the same methods employed against BLA, with a U.S. Company listed in the U.S., it appears that we have a short seller not only exploiting a weakness in an Australian company, attributed to the asset classes it invests in, but also exploiting a weakness in the regulatory reach of Australia's securities regulator.
BLA Price at posting:
$5.30 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
