It's an interesting notice. Looking at it, it seems that there's...

It's an interesting notice. Looking at it, it seems that there's one Colonial First State fund [delineated as "(3)"] which holds most of the shares represented by CBA's holding.

I had a look back at the first substantial shareholder notice lodged by CBA in late Nov 08, then compared it to the most recent one. I'd hate to hold units in whatever fund was involved in this little fiasco.

This fund owned zero BLY shares before their first buy on 21 Jul 08. They were buying a few, here and there last year, however they really stepped up their buying when the share price started to dive. By Sept and Oct 08, when the price was tanking visciously, they were buying hand over fist, in $100k, $200k, $400k and more, lots. Ended up with 45m shares at a cost of 35m, by the end of Nov 08.

Then they gave it a bit of a rest until late Jan 09, when they started buying again. By mid-Feb 09, however, it looks like somebody called "time" on all of this (sp was now sub-20c vs. avg. purchase price of over 70c.

Since that time, they've started selling down, although they're not doing so with the same gusto they bought with..yet. Don't about you, but having that kind of professional incompetence carrying +80m shares on the register is a bit of a worry.

Here's a little graph I drew up to show what they did. Have a look at it, in conjunction with a BLY price chart.