As to how Glaucus came to this, this article from almost 12 months ago may help:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...quintis-short-seller-glaucus-scours-australia - including the choice quotes of:
'“We continue our search for rotten apples in Australia,” said Soren Aandahl, the Austin, Texas-based head of research at Glaucus, which came to prominence betting against Chinese companies listed in the U.S. Australia has a strong rule of law, regulators and corporate governance “but that makes the rotten apples stand out even more.”'
“It took the Glaucus report to really shine a light on it,” said Ben McGarry, portfolio manager at Sydney-based Totus Capital Pty, who had bearish wagers on Quintis as of Thursday. “It’s good for the market to have firms like this doing fundamental research and highlighting serious issues.”
If we are now at around fair value (and I wouldn't be surprised if 'new' board and management scrutiny results in another revision to profit guidance), then anyone who purchased BLA in the last 4 years has massively overpaid. As have all those hard working people socking any of their super into an ASX300 index fund since BLA has been included in the index.
Until last month, investors, analysts and reporters have chosen to look past or ignore the opaque, selective disclosures in assessing the value of a BLA share. Only since Glaucus questioned these disclosures has the questioning by the market as a whole begun, and after initial denials, the chairman admitted on the 16th of April "we have listened to the market feedback and its clear that Blue Sky has fallen short of market and shareholder expectations around transparency and disclosure."
I hope Glaucus uncover more rotten apples on the ASX and prevent investors and superannuation money paying inflated prices for businesses worth a fraction of their current price. If I had the time to do the research I would love to find them myself.
As Warren Buffett said at the Berkshire Hathaway AGM in 2006, short sellers have a useful role to play in uncovering fraudulent accounting and other problems at companies.
