This is a an opt-out class action, you don't have to register, if you bought between the dates of the filing you are already represented in a funded class action. I checked the statistics on class actions, basically 60% or so are settled before court, 35% or so are dismissed and the rest go to court.
So if you do nothing at all, you might get back a few cents on the dollar IF the class action is not dismissed and a settlement is reached. You can continue to hold your shares or sell them, that is irrelevant to being a claimant.
If they go to court, you are looking potentially at years of waiting. Settlement can be made at any time prior to that if both parties agree.
GSW has done the right thing by employing a top notch legal firm, who I'm sure are on to this.
So there is no risk if you want to stay in the class action. If it goes ahead and is not dismissed, there is not much point opting out but don't count on getting much of a payout. I read up on the SGH class action (share went from $8 to 8 cents) and although it was settled, the settlement was basically all the insurance that the SGH directors had, and when divided up, people will not get much of a payout. So there's that to consider. It's usually only the lawyers who make money out of class actions.
On the negative side, mud sticks. I have been invested in a small cap miner that had a claim against it by another company that it had had dealings with, they were after 2 million. It went on for more than 3 years and was finally in court recently, and dismissed. It did weigh on the stock price and held it back.
But the situation was very different, it was not yet earning much money, and 2 million would have been a sizeable dent in their earnings.
Everything now rides on GSW and its ability to confirm numbers and revenue. However I think any announcements they make will be attacked and ridiculed - maybe so it can be shorted, maybe to sell newspapers, maybe just because people get enjoyment out of doing it. So for me, this is now one for the bottom drawer and to await the audited half-yearly or yearly.
I believe it will be a year at least until we get the numbers coming through to confirm any previous announcements about projected income. They themselves have said NAW is an 18 month implementation so it is unreasonable to expect anything until at or close to full implementation.
The good news is that there is no proof offered by anyone (it's all only conjecture) that NAW and CBA are not going forward. CBA is not going to pull out because of one announcement that was not approved. But again, I give it a year or more and during this time I believe we will see ongoing volatility in the share price. I don't attach any value yet to Amazon, GSW themselves have been vague and said the numbers of users/revenue is not yet quantifiable.
I've been a class action participant in two instances, and the company in question settled the first one, the second one is pending. The company is still in business, actually doing very well, a class action doesn't sink the company if they have strong revenue flow. It makes a dent then they move on.
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