Opes Prime to be liquidated, but investors still fighting for compensation

A meeting of creditors of failed stockbroker Opes Prime has voted to place the company into liquidation.

A meeting of creditors of failed stockbroker Opes Prime has voted to place the company into liquidation.

The decision will allow Opes Prime’s administrator, Ferrier Hodgson, to pursue claims against Opes Prime’s secured creditors, ANZ Bank and Merrill Lynch, which seized and then sold many of the shares that Opes Prime clients had given to the broker as collateral for margin loans.

Ferrier Hodgson administrator John Lindholm will continue negotiating with ANZ and Merrill Lynch in a bid to get some compensation for former Opes clients.

Lindholm and his legal adviser, Tony Troiani, of Mallesons Stephen Jaques, argue that Opes should not have entered any financial deals after 19 and 20 March when it was clearly insolvent and should have been in administration.

While Lindholm could not tell creditors how much they could expect to receive if the mediation is successful, it has been reported he is seeking somewhere between $135 million and $200 million.

If mediation is not successful, Lindholm is prepared to take legal action, although this will take years to be resolved.

“We are going to face off again on Friday and on Monday, and all through the weekend if we have to,” Troiani told the meeting. “No stone is going to be left unturned to avoid the Armageddon scenario, which is three to five years of litigation.”

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