administration, page-14

Even after the game is over, poor Optimix and his spruikers are no wiser. Wisdom of hindsight is a myth to some.

The saga began when Melrose decided to go it alone instead of licensing manufacturing out to the experts. At the best of time, manufacturing a new drug is risky even to the experts let alone a management team that had no experience but a dose of double arrogance. And it was doubly hard going it alone marketing the new product. Despite this the investing market was willing to back the venture. Melrose continued to heighten market expectations with endless “good news”. When things/manufacturing were not traveling as hyped, instead of fixing the problem (as the ASIC guilt plea revealed), bad corporate governance was king of the day. In a period of plummeting share price and spiraling poor performance, the Melrose team infuriated the investing community further with his arrogance in doubling executive remunerations. This was the last straw for the fund managers and smarter investors (obviously not counting Optimix) who deserted the CMQ registry. Obviously not smart to bite the hands that feed you.

So faced with a half completed factory and burning cash at a furious pace, Melrose had no choice but to go hat-in-hand to the death spiral financiers spinning a rosy path to the bondholders and shareholders alike. This bought some extra time and instead of bringing the experts to fix the manufacturing problem, CMQ brought in the David Williams dream team.

True to form, DW made his debut memorably, announcing the now infamous hatched Inviro life-time sale contract. Announcements were smoother than ever before. The writings were truly on the wall in bright Teflon colors. Instead of turning the ship around, the DW dream team blew its last chance. It stumbled from 1 litigation to the next, biting the hands of Dr Grimbeek and then the bondholders. Nothing epitomized the arrogance more than the brazen attempt to reward DW with millions of free options. It made the Melrose team looked like experts.

And in its dying moments, out of the mist appeared the IFCA life-line deal framed in full misty glory. There are many rumors doing the rounds in Perth on the IFCA deal that appeared and disappeared faster than a mirage. Optimix, wasn’t it outrageous to suggest if IFCA was interested, they would buy it off the liquidators, right?

Within minutes of the court judgment, the tussle was on to appoint the administrator and DW got the first bite appointing Korda Mentha. But as usual it was the bondholders having the last say.

It is very possible that some other company will run with the IP, manufacturing the product efficiently at a fraction what it costs CMQ; market it effectively and earning squillions. In short, shareholders had been shafted by the Melrose team and double shafted by the DW dream team. No, virginiak you do not have to thank us for trying to point out the obvious to you. You have to thank DW for making the CMQ shares cheaper and cheaper and chipped.