http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/article/washing-their-...

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/article/washing-their-hands-l4b29?opendocument&src=wdb

"Macquarie Group has quietly dumped the last of its shareholding in BrisConnections, whose $1.2 billion IPO it sponsored and managed in July.

According to a filing late Tuesday, Macquarie sold its remaining 28.2 million shares at the princely sum of one tenth of a cent each, or a total of $282,000. The shares, the first of three instalments to be paid, had a value of $1 each at the time of the float.

Macquarie inherited 60 million shares from the IPO, and got very little in return. After selling down an initial four million it actually bought back into the market at 6c a share.

However, it has sold the rest at less than 1c each, crystallising a significant loss, and painting a stark contrast to the last problem float, that of Sydney Airport owner Macquarie Airports all those years ago, when Macquarie executives were active buyers.

BrisConnection’s partly paid shares have been stuck at the ignominious low since last Thursday when it informed investors that in fact it would not be paying the 5.95c a share distribution next year as planned, and would delay it until after the second instalment is paid.

Instead, it will make a distribution of one 20th of one cent, or 0.05c, which must be some sort of record. At the current market price this still represents a 50 per cent yield.

That however, is not the problem. The reasoning given for the distribution delay was that it did not want investors to be encouraged into the stock for the 5.95c distribution and then find they have to make a $1 payment for the second instalment, which they might not be able to meet if they have bought too many shares at 0.1c each.

Macquarie’s sale, unless it has gone to a deep pocketed investor, might not help matters. It is said that up to 60 per cent of the partly paid securities are held by day traders. If these day traders can not, or will not, stump up for the second instalment, then the company faces a messy pursuit of the outstanding monies, even if the company is in the legal right "