ANZ releases updated Opes list, including 30 mining plays
Kate Hayc#ck, Nick Evans Monday, 7 April 2008
ANZ has released a list of Opes Prime clients with substantial shareholdings of more than 5%, including some 30 mining stocks, acquired by the major bank when the stockbroker collapsed just over a week ago.
This morning ANZ released the full list of significant shareholdings it seized from Opes Prime.
The bank said it had entered a disposal program for these shares, but still intended to lodge a substantial holding notice in relation to the shares “as soon as practicable”.
The list does not include interests ANZ may have in further shares in the companies as a result of acquisitions under securities lending agreements and other market participants, the bank said.
The roll call of 30 mining companies excludes Gindalbie Metals. Its major shareholder Melewar Ventures last week gained a court injunction halting the sale of around half of the company’s shares in the Mid-West iron ore hopeful, or around 6.2% of Gindalbie's major shares.
While many of these stocks should bounce back from ANZ’s sell-off, relatively illiquid and thinly traded stocks may suffer.
It could take some time for brokers to clear the overhang for those companies, if the stocks are trickled out onto the market in relatively small parcels, potentially depressing share prices for some time.
Alternatively, the ANZ’s brokers may seek off-market buyers for large tranches of the shares.
Following is a list of the mining companies included in ANZ’s list, along with the percentage of their ordinary shares that came into the bank’s control when Opes collapsed:
