Newsat? Adrian Ballintine? Anything else we need to be informed of?
Baillieu Holst director Stephen Macaw traded the 17 million NewSat shares to clients of the firm on the morning of 29 October 2013 at 52¢ apiece, generating $8.8 million for an offshore entity associated with his brother.
In July 2013, New Zealand-registered Orbital Capital made a secret 180-day, $5 million loan to NewSat to bridge a funding shortfall of $2.9 million.
As part of the deal – which was not disclosed to the market at the time – NewSat agreed to pay Orbital a fixed interest fee of $1.4 million, which was an extraordinary interest rate of 56 per cent.
Fairfax Media has confirmed the NewSat shares had not been formally quoted as required under Australian law. NewSat only advised the market it had issued the 17 million shares seven hours after they already had been sold.
Scott Macaw's Kiwi Deposit also traded NewSat shares and held $2 million worth of them at the time it went out of business in April 2013. Kiwi Deposit also has an outstanding $440,000 loan to Mr Ballintine's yacht company.
I'm glad to hear that Federal National Party senator John Williams has vowed to grill ASIC officials over the Baillieu Holst shares matter when they appear before a parliamentary committee on Friday. Greens leader Christine Milne said the case reinforced a perception that "it seems that there are two laws in Australia, one for the big end of town and one for everyone else".
NWT Price at posting:
11.0¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
