Alphatise for sale; Perth financial adviser banned for life: Midday Roundup

E-commerce startup Alphatise is up for sale after it collapsed into voluntary administration last week.

Administrators Deloitte this morning advertised for urgent expressions of interest for the sale or recapitalisation of the business in The Australian Financial Review.

The ad reveals Alphatise has used the $4.5 million seed capital it raised last year after its launch to develop its platform “which is still continuing to evolve”.

Alphatise allows consumers to request a product they want to buy and say how much they’re willing to pay for it. The company then gives retailers the opportunity to match that deal.

SmartCompany understands a number of Alphatise shareholders have recently had concerns about the leadership of the company.

Perth financial adviser banned for life

The corporate watchdog has banned Perth man and former financial advisor Lewis Fellowes for providing financial services for life, after he transferred $1 million from a client’s bank account to his own.

Fellowes was also found to have transferred more than $480,000 of client funds from their margin lending accounts into his personal account and that of his wife without the knowledge or authorisation of those clients, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The transactions occurred between July 2008 to July 2010, when Fellowes was working at financial planners Gladstone in Queensland and Patersons Securities Limited in Perth. Patersons Securities voluntarily reported Fellowes to ASIC.

Fellowes has subsequently returned the funds to his former clients.

Stocks open lower

Local stocks have opened lower this morning despite a significant lead from Wall Street overnight.

“The stock market looks likely to open on a firm footing this morning after a big rally in US markets,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“The early response of the Australian market to the big US move may be restrained by the fact that Asian markets had a significant rally yesterday, meaning the US was to some extent playing catch up,” said Spooner.

“The key to today’s trading is likely to be whether there is follow through buying of “yield” stocks like Commonwealth Bank and Telstra which was a big  feature of yesterday’s market. The strength of the $A may be a complicating factor here, potentially making offshore investors a little more cautious about Australian stocks this morning.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 42 points to 5808.2 points at 11.50AM AEDT. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed up 1.47%, jumping 259.83 points to 17,895.2 points.