Reports today in Australian Financial Review (AFR) indicate that MFS (Now Octaviar) is a total write-off for all MFS share investors. I note BionicBoyfs recent posting. The article revealing that Octaviar may have traded while insolvent.
MFSfs crash results in significant pain for all shareholders, noteholders and PIF holders (small and large) who have lost serious money that they invested in MFS. As there is nothing left for shareholders in MFS (Octaviar), the proposed Class Action by IMF / Slater Gordon is probably unlikely to proceed.
NOTE WELL. I have yet to hear an announcement by Slater Gordon to confirm this comment, as they may choose to pursue the ex Directors for damages. I would support any action against the ex Directors, but they may consider it's uneconomic to proceed further.
The MFS failure remains a sore point for myself and many other investors because it would appear there has been deliberate deception exercised by some or all of the prior MFS Directors.
E.g. Unreported off Balance sheet debt, Untrue and misleading ASX announcements, Unreported incredibly high margin loans.
This is an absolutely disgraceful situation for a company that had a capitalisation of over $2 billion and listed in the top 200 Australian companies.
It is very clear now that the company accounts did not provide a true picture of the financial state of the company as early as December 2007. This was well before I invested in the company.
MFS is now reported to have $2.7 Billion in debts (see today's AFR). Current Octaviar director Chris Scott, who has done his very best for shareholders (currently resides and has lived in Singapore for several years) has stated there is nothing left for MFS shareholders.
Ex Directors Messrs Michael King, Andrew Peacock (ex Liberal Party leader) and Phil Adams have to be brought to account for this terrible collapse. It is noted that MFS collapsed well before Australian Markets really tanked. In early January 08 the ASX200 was far higher than it is now.
Andrew Peacock is reported to have been paid $200,000 by MFS up to Jan/Feb 08 as MFS Chairman and has now moved onto his other chairmanships, I expect he is hoping investors will simply forget the MFS mess and move on. Andrew Peacock should have been doing his job properly as MFS chairman. He clearly failed as Chairman.
As the MFS / OCV Class Action is unlikely to proceed the only way I see for action to happen and justice to be done is for shareholders to apply pressure to ASIC to ensure they act on MFS by emailing, writing, phoning them and hassling them to do something.
I encourage all investors to email ASIC and to express your outrage at what has happened and the huge financial cost you have personally paid as a result of the MFS (Octaviar) collapse.
If Shareholders, MFS Noteholders and Premium Investment Fund (PIF) unit holders choose to do nothing then ASIC will probably also do very little as there have been a long list of failures this year (B&B, Allco, ABC Learning, CUO, Matrix etc). MFS collapsed very early in the 2008 year so it's easily forgotten.
The MFS collapse has severely affected the lives of thousands of Australians (including many aged PIF holders) and those responsible should not be allowed to simply merge into the shadows and escape grilling by the Authorities and Investor representatives.
Events such as these destroy Australia's Financial reputation. What is the value of reading a company balance sheet when it's not a true reflection of the financial state of the company because the actual and true debt levels are not revealed? The Annual Report simply becomes a sad and expensive Joke that canft be taken seriously. My comments also have some relevance to ABC Learning End of Year accounts.
I remain disillusioned and angry by this situation. It's been a terrible year.
Regards and Merry Xmas to all MFS (Octaviar) Investors and Shareholders,
Phil
OCV Price at posting:
99.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
