This whole situation with SIs doesn't feel right does it. While...

This whole situation with SIs doesn't feel right does it. While I recognise the value of having the additional capital base to draw upon under certain situations, companies are increasingly offering SIs substancial discounts and paying massive commissions to intermediaries because it is easier than complying with the regulatory obligations through traditional CR means thus locking existing holders (owners of the company) out without any choice of participation.

Australian companies need a means by which to make it easier to make CR offers to existing investors without the overhead of full perspectus etc. We don't all qualify as SIs but many of us follow these stocks closely and have skin in the game. It's a pretty sad state of afairs that strangers get preferred treatment over existing "owners".

Nobody provided us a prospectus when we brought our stock on market so why do we need such protection when the company that we already chose to invest in and follow closely needs extra cash from us? Seems odd that the mechanism that is supposedly setup to protect us regularly results in our assets being hocked to some stranger at below market rates.

Additionally if somebody is to get a massive discount to market surely it should come with some obligation to hold the stock for a given period of time, ie a lot more than 24 hours.

This is not a criticism of VIL or the SIs specifically. Just a stupid system that harms the people it purports to protect IMHO.