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April 1, 2008 |
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OPES PRIME: Placed in Receivership Due to Some Irregularities Ferrier Hodgson Partners John Lindholm, Peter McCluskey and Adrian Brown have been appointed Administrators by the directors of Opes Prime Group Limited and a number of its subsidiaries and related entities including, Opes Prime Stockbroking Limited. OPSL, a full market participant on the ASX, provided institutional and private clients with stockbroking services, predominantly in the form of securities lending and equity financing. Initial investigations indicate that the solvency of the business was under pressure due to a number of major clients not meeting significant margin calls. The Administrators are currently examining the Group’s affairs to quantify the likely liability to OPSL’s clients. Mr Lindholm said: “Preliminary investigations indicate that the financiers to the Group hold sufficient collateral securities to cover their positions in full. However, OPSL’s clients are potentially exposed for the difference between the value of the collateral securities they have advanced and the loans provided by OPSL. At this stage, it is too early to estimate the realisable value of OPSL’s assets to meet client claims.” The Administrators will call a meeting of creditors for April 8, 2008. Receivers Appointed Late in the afternoon of Thursday, March 27, 2008, following the appointment of voluntary administrators by the Directors of the Opes Prime Group, Sal Algeri and Chris Campbell from the Deloitte Corporate Reorganisation Group were appointed by a secured creditor, ANZ Banking Group Ltd., as Receivers and Managers of Opes Prime Group Ltd, Opes Prime Stockbroking Ltd, Leveraged Capital Pty Ltd and Hawkswood Investments Pty Ltd. The Directors appointed John Lindholm of Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrator when they became aware of a number of cash and stock movement irregularities in relation to a small number of accounts. The shortfalls in these accounts led the Directors to believe the trading operations could not continue. These matters will continue to be subject to the Receivers’ investigations. The trading operations have ceased. Accordingly, the Receivers have taken steps in conjunction with the Australian Stock Exchange to suspend all on market trading activity of both Opes Prime Stockbroking and Leverage Capital. It will take some time to reconcile the position of all these transactions. In addition the Receivers have frozen all client accounts, including client direct trading facilities, for both Opes Prime Stock Broking and Leveraged Capital. The Receivers will correspond with the clients directly regarding their accounts together with seeking their confirmations of account balances. Victoria Thieberger of Reuters reports that Opes Prime's clients include major banks, asset managers and stockbrokers. Reuters, citing The Australian, relates that recently Opes Prime's lending book is valued at more than AU$1 billion. About Opes Prime Opes Prime Group Ltd is an Australian unlisted public company providing a range of financial services and products for high net worth individuals, stockbrokers and financial advisors, asset managers, banks and other firms, both for themselves and their clients. The Group conducts business via a number of operating subsidiaries based in Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore: 1) Opes Prime Stockbroking Limited is a full Market Participant of the Australian Stock Exchange Ltd, and holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (#247408) which enables it to deal and advise in financial services and products to retail and wholesale clients. The company was first registered on 10 March 1999, and started business with its current shareholders in 2005. Opes Prime Stockbroking is a specialist provider of securities lending and equity financing services. In Singapore, the firm operates through Opes Prime Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Opes Prime International Pte Ltd. In Australia, Opes Prime Stockbroking has granted Authorised Representative status to Trader Dealer Pty Ltd, an on-line non-advisory trading execution service for the semi- professional and professional trader. 2) Opes Prime Structured Products Pty Ltd develops, manages and markets specialised leveraged products for the high net worth market, providing outstanding risk protection and return potential. 3) Opes Prime Paradigm Pty Ltd, is a corporate finance and advisory firm specialising in small and mid cap stocks. 4) In Singapore, Opes Prime Asset Management Pte Ltd provides specialist hedge fund incubation, advisory and trade management services, and Five Pillars Associates Pte Ltd provides Islamic finance consultancy. |
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