Opes Prime clients set to receive first dividend
The Age
Friday December 18, 2009
CLIENTS of failed stockbroking company Opes Prime, which collapsed in early 2008, will receive their first dividend in the next few days, but administrators have warned final resolution may take up to two years.The administrators, John Lindholm and Adrian Brown of Ferrier Hodgson, yesterday said they would honour $563.83 million of claims submitted for 640 creditors, or 84 per cent of the total value of claims submitted.Creditors this week will receive 30 of what is eventually expected to be a total distribution of 37 in the dollar.The distribution was made possible after ANZ Bank and Merrill Lynch, under threat of legal action, capitulated earlier this year to a settlement plan.The banks, which had financed Opes Prime's margin lending, agreed to contribute $253 million to pay the company's creditors. In return the corporate regulator agreed not to pursue the banks over their actions immediately before Opes Prime closed its doors.But criminal charges may yet be filed against individuals.When Opes Prime failed, ANZ and Merrill Lynch seized and sold about $1.6 billion of share portfolios ostensibly controlled by Opes Prime's clients.But ANZ's actions in particular were questioned when it emerged that, in extending a new line of finance to the broking house just before it collapsed, the bank changed the terms of its security, enabling it to seize the share portfolios.The administrators said some disputed claims still had not been resolved, some recovery actions continued and some assets were yet to be sold. "We expect that . . . may take one to two years to finalise," they said.
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