Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

BCS - BrisConnections Unit Trusts

Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Oh Rocket I am so sorry for this - could you contact IMF - they are a 'no win no pay' company that is currently suing MFS for lack of disclosure - I just posted a query about them myself in the Chat section.

You know, the ease of online trading and apparent lack of warning about this trade is truly scary - I have told my sons and Husband about what is happening to people on this forum and everyone is gobsmacked. But hubby said, as did James Austin above, that it really isnt in anyone's best interest to take people to court who have no chance of paying out.

I am going to see if I can buy 1 share to see what info NAB gives.

I think the best thing to happen is for a Slater and Gordon to take it to the Court and they may decide to 'hold' future settlements pending a decision.
I really hope that this all works out for you.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

rocket, i dont know your financial situation, but i'd assume its not in BrisC's/MacBs interest to take a heap of little people to court, people who have no way of paying. once everyone has been processed and declared bankrupt they wont even cover legal fees. so maybe . . . in the end court is unlikely. although, none of this helps at the moment, does it!

Exactly JA,

As I said in my previous post, if it were me in this position, I'd move my available cash to somewhere "out of the way", then sit tight and let the Big Boys flex their muscles. I think MAC Bank will end up footing most of the bill as underwriters ......

Trouble is even if you and others get out in the end, the stress in the short/medium term can take its toll ......

Someone tried to sue me once for 3/4 of a million bucks for something I had nothing to do with ..... In hindsight, I shouldn't have hired a lawyer till I got a court date ............. needless to say, it never got to court, but meanwhile the solicitors bled almost 10 grand out of my families savings (a lot of photocopying fees LOL .......... )

There are places to get advice on this sort of stuff, but you don't need to pay some LA Law wannabe $450 / hour !!

So my point is Rocket ... sit tight ... try and stay calm ... Injustices have a way of working themselves out ................
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

rocket, i dont know your financial situation, but i'd assume its not in BrisC's/MacBs interest to take a heap of little people to court, people who have no way of paying. once everyone has been processed and declared bankrupt they wont even cover legal fees. so maybe . . . in the end court is unlikely. although, none of this helps at the moment, does it!

While this seems sensible the difficulty arises because there are shareholders out there who can afford the installment payments... they could be wealthy individuals, institutional holders or small investors who just had a small holding. Where do you draw the line on who you will / will not pursue? Will Macq be so generous in chaning the underwriting agreement (which stipulates that BrisConnection has to chase down those liable)? This means many holders can get a free put (i.e. they are able to "sell" the fully paid BrisConnection shares at $2 each, when their real worth is a lot less than that).

This is such a can of worms. If I am a holder I would read the fine print of the PDS / Service agreement of the broker which you bought the securities through and see whether they have any duty to inform. I would also definitely seek legal advice (on both process and legality) of setting up transferring BCSCA to a shell trust/company (see earlier post)... This is more proactive than waiting for the goodwill of BCS / MQG.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

While this seems sensible the difficulty arises because there are shareholders out there who can afford the installment payments... they could be wealthy individuals, institutional holders or small investors who just had a small holding. Where do you draw the line on who you will / will not pursue? Will Macq be so generous in chaning the underwriting agreement (which stipulates that BrisConnection has to chase down those liable)? This means many holders can get a free put (i.e. they are able to "sell" the fully paid BrisConnection shares at $2 each, when their real worth is a lot less than that).

This is such a can of worms. If I am a holder I would read the fine print of the PDS / Service agreement of the broker which you bought the securities through and see whether they have any duty to inform. I would also definitely seek legal advice (on both process and legality) of setting up transferring BCSCA to a shell trust/company (see earlier post)... This is more proactive than waiting for the goodwill of BCS / MQG.

Yes I think my first job is to see a lawyer who can protect my assets (I don't have many!!) as well as seeing if I can transfer the shares somehow. Whilst I agree with another recent poster that these sort of injustices have a tendency to work out, it does seem like they are going to play hardball. So the main thing shareholders can do is make things as hard as possible for them to get anything....

Anyone know of lawyers that specialize in that sort of situation??
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Just as a side note to all this, which is also a bit scary .............. Brisconn. originally mentioned in their PDS that each share will be paid a form of divi around 15% (1st installment period) and 8% (2nd I)

Thats all good ..... but they go on to say in section 6 ish that they don't guarantee the divi .............. Instead, you may be "compensated" with additional shares .......... and here's the bad news .... those additional shares will also be subject to the future installment requirements :eek:

(Please check that out for yourselves in case I've misunderstood it)

The whole thing is a mess, but I still think the average punter will be ok. Actually, it wouldn't surprise to see the whole Co. to go belly up because of whats happened .............. Then they will fight with MacB over the cash .

Just try and move your cash/assets in to a safe haven in the mean time (legally of course) so they can't get at it easily.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Yes I think my first job is to see a lawyer who can protect my assets (I don't have many!!) as well as seeing if I can transfer the shares somehow. Whilst I agree with another recent poster that these sort of injustices have a tendency to work out, it does seem like they are going to play hardball. So the main thing shareholders can do is make things as hard as possible for them to get anything....

Anyone know of lawyers that specialize in that sort of situation??

Hi Rocket, and sorry for your situation.

Regarding my comments on Lawyers, I should clarify ..... I agree getting some good advice is important atm, but I would not sign any thing with regard to them fighting your case for you at this point in time. Way too early for that.

If it is legal to XT your shares to a shelf Co., that would be a priority for sure ... you need to do whatever it takes to protect the lively-hood of your family.

Re the "hardball" ........... The Company has to "appear" to play hardball with the shareholders such as yourself, to satisfy the Underwriter that they have taken all steps available to them to recoup monies BEFORE they can get any money out of the Underwriter themselves. ........ otherwise MacB will have a case not to pay up....... so this is all normal carry on from a legal pov.

I think the there will be a lot of water under the bridge before this gets settled, so hang in.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Hi Rocket, and sorry for your situation.

Regarding my comments on Lawyers, I should clarify ..... I agree getting some good advice is important atm, but I would not sign any thing with regard to them fighting your case for you at this point in time. Way too early for that.

If it is legal to XT your shares to a shelf Co., that would be a priority for sure ... you need to do whatever it takes to protect the lively-hood of your family.

Re the "hardball" ........... The Company has to "appear" to play hardball with the shareholders such as yourself, to satisfy the Underwriter that they have taken all steps available to them to recoup monies BEFORE they can get any money out of the Underwriter themselves. ........ otherwise MacB will have a case not to pay up....... so this is all normal carry on from a legal pov.

I think the there will be a lot of water under the bridge before this gets settled, so hang in.

I agree, I actually feel sorry for Trevor Rowe from Brisconnections as I do realize he has to be seen to try and get this money from us. A pretty crappy situation to be put in. I don't think he would be getting a lot of joy out of the debt collector comments, but it's what he's gotta say!!
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

I agree, I actually feel sorry for Trevor Rowe from Brisconnections as I do realize he has to be seen to try and get this money from us. A pretty crappy situation to be put in. I don't think he would be getting a lot of joy out of the debt collector comments, but it's what he's gotta say!!


M8, If you have the ability to feel sorry for Trevor Rowe while you are in the middle of dealing with this, then I take my hat off to you ..............

That being the case, I think you will deal with the whole scenario well, whatever the outcome.

Life has a funny way of putting us in situations that are a downright pain in the proverbial .............. How you deal with the situation is the real measure of the person ............. so as I said .... my hat is off.

Cheers and good luck to you and your family.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Well I went onto the ASX site with the mindset of a newcomer to the stock market. I went into the link for shares and under there is a "getting started in shares" PDF document. I opened the document and read through it. It has a section on warrants. Below is the excerpt from that booklet.

I have bolded the relevant part and underlined a key word that is in that document. My understanding of installment warrants was always that the installment payments were optional. This booklet as far as I can see gives the same impression. If this is what beginners to the share market read it is easy to see how they could have mistakenly been under the impression that the payments were optional.

Warrants
A warrant is a financial instrument issued by
banks and other institutions and traded on ASX.
Warrants provide investors an alternative way to
gain exposure to a variety of underlying assets,
such as shares, to achieve a desired result.
There are different types of warrants that
suit investment and/or trading purposes.
Warrants with an investment purpose, such
as instalments, are generally longer-dated,
tend to be less frequently traded and have a
lower risk/return profile while warrants with a
trading purpose, such as trading warrants are
shorter-dated, traded frequently and have
a higher risk/return profile.
You can use instalments to gain leveraged
exposure to shares, baskets of shares, or
listed managed investments such as exchange
traded funds (ETFs) by making a part payment
upfront and delaying an optional final payment
until a later date.
This allows you to buy
shares for part of the current share price
while receiving the benefits of potential capital
growth, dividends and franking credits.
Reasons to invest include leverage,
diversification, generating an enhanced
dividend income and extracting cash from a
share-holding without triggering a capital gains
tax. They are also one of the few leveraged
investments eligible for Self Managed Super
Funds (SMSF).
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

I then went into the Warrants section of the ASX web site and clicked on the "What are warrants" link. Under there is a link to "types of warrants". I followed this link. Under there is a section that says 'instalments'. I clicked on it. Below is the second paragraph from under there. Note that word 'optional' is bolded on the actual ASX web site.


Instalments allow you to gain exposure to shares (and other securities) by making a part payment upfront and delaying an optional final payment until a later date. This allows you to buy shares for a fraction of the current share price while receiving the benefits of capital growth, dividends and franking credits.

Here is the link to the page:
http://www.asx.com.au/products/warrants/how/instalments.htm
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

M8, If you have the ability to feel sorry for Trevor Rowe while you are in the middle of dealing with this, then I take my hat off to you ..............

That being the case, I think you will deal with the whole scenario well, whatever the outcome.

Life has a funny way of putting us in situations that are a downright pain in the proverbial .............. How you deal with the situation is the real measure of the person ............. so as I said .... my hat is off.

Cheers and good luck to you and your family.

Some of the things he has said publicly have flat out annoyed me. Saying investors should seek financial advice every time they buy shares. Sorry but there would be a 20 year waiting list to see a financial advisor if every sale on the ASX needed financial advice!! and I'm sure the ASX would love to hear that kind of talk, peeps would stay away from the market in droves.

Saying that the code BCSCA indicates that its a contributing share, and that in itself is enough to inform the market. Sorry but a pretty large percentage of retail investors dont know that. Knowing very well that millions of retail investors are in the market

Saying that contributing shares are very common. Sorry but I could only count 3 out of the thousands of shares making up the all industrials (brisconnections, Multiplex prime, and Westpac office trusts)

However I would guess that he hopes his underwriters step in and fix this mess, so were both in the same boat in that regard...;)

Ps thanks to you and everyone else for all the positive input and thoughts, I will pop back in the future and see how things are going here, looks like a great site...:)
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

I then went into the Warrants section of the ASX web site and clicked on the "What are warrants" link. Under there is a link to "types of warrants". I followed this link. Under there is a section that says 'instalments'. I clicked on it. Below is the second paragraph from under there. Note that word 'optional' is bolded on the actual ASX web site.


Instalments allow you to gain exposure to shares (and other securities) by making a part payment upfront and delaying an optional final payment until a later date. This allows you to buy shares for a fraction of the current share price while receiving the benefits of capital growth, dividends and franking credits.

Here is the link to the page:
http://www.asx.com.au/products/warrants/how/instalments.htm

hehe, I'm back already!!.....I searched the ASX website for hours and found nothing on contributing shares codes, this is the closest I got http://www.asx.com.au/products/warrants/how/codes.htm

I think this info you have found is what warrants usually are (I wouldn't know really) but contributing shares where the fourth letter of a five letter code is "C" indicates it as such.

They need something like this page http://www.trading-plan.com/basics_asx_codes.html where it explains it clearly.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

This is normall what happens when a warrant type of share is due.
http://www.goldstarnl.com.au/pdf/Call Notice ASX - Final.pdf

I wish Brisconnections fell into this more common category.....:(

Upon receipt of the formal call notice, there are two courses of action available to you:
1. Pay $0.099 per contributing share. In this event you will be issued with one fully paid ordinary
share for each contributing share you have elected to pay up in full. These ordinary shares
will be tradable on the ASX; or
2. Do nothing. If you do nothing and the call remains unpaid for a period of 14 days, your
contributing shares will be forfeited. The forfeited contributing shares will be auctioned
under a formal process pursuant to the ASX Listing Rules and the Corporations Act. If the
contributing shares subject to the auction are sold then the proceeds up to $0.099 will be
paid to the Company, and any proceeds in excess of $0.099 will be for the account of the
contributing shareholder whose contributing shares were forfeited.
Contributing shareholders are urged to promptly pay the sum of $0.099 per contributing share to
avoid their contributing shares being automatically forfeited.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Actually my apologies, I've headed offf in the wrong direction with the stuff on warrants.

I had a further read and the BCSCA's aren't instalment warrants, they are under the managed funds and ETF's section and described as infrastructure funds.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

I then went into the Warrants section of the ASX web site and clicked on the "What are warrants" link. Under there is a link to "types of warrants". I followed this link. Under there is a section that says 'instalments'. I clicked on it. Below is the second paragraph from under there. Note that word 'optional' is bolded on the actual ASX web site.


Instalments allow you to gain exposure to shares (and other securities) by making a part payment upfront and delaying an optional final payment until a later date. This allows you to buy shares for a fraction of the current share price while receiving the benefits of capital growth, dividends and franking credits.

Here is the link to the page:
http://www.asx.com.au/products/warrants/how/instalments.htm

Hi C/fish, I guess they say optional because under normal circumstances you have the "option" to sell before the installment is due ..... Unfortunately, the current scenario is not normal ...............

As I said earlier, there should be a provision from the ASX, that if no trade can be initiated/completed with a share, you should be able to relinquish your holding back to the company ... ie you lose your initial investment, and the Co. retains your shares at no cost to them ..... This would eliminate the current circumstance of people unable to trade (no buyers) ..........

I mean lets face it ... Why should the shareholders be crucified just because the Company is crap !!

If I were a Judge ruling on this scenario of S/H's being sent to the wall because of a Co's bad management arrangements, I know what my ruling would be .............. Its just a bad joke and a wake up call for some system changes to stop it happening again. Cheers.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Yes I think my first job is to see a lawyer who can protect my assets (I don't have many!!) as well as seeing if I can transfer the shares somehow.

If you do protect yourself via a transfer, make sure that it is the shares that are transferred to a separate entity. Definitely NOT the other way, where you transfer your other assets away from yourself. Because if you still own the shares, BrisConnection will still have a claim on you personally. You will have to pay them back over the next 50 years or whatever... so you need to not just your consider your current assets (however little there are), but your future cashflow / assets as well.

As I said earlier, there should be a provision from the ASX, that if no trade can be initiated/completed with a share, you should be able to relinquish your holding back to the company ... ie you lose your initial investment, and the Co. retains your shares at no cost to them ..... This would eliminate the current circumstance of people unable to trade (no buyers) ..........

I doubt this is a solution at all in this situation...it won't work because you are asking someone to take back a liability, not the equity.

I mean lets face it ... Why should the shareholders be crucified just because the Company is crap !!

I hope this is just a vent... shareholders are of course the ones to suffer because a company is crap... they own the company for crying out low!!



My hats off to Rocket also...good luck.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Hi C/fish, I guess they say optional because under normal circumstances you have the "option" to sell before the installment is due.

Barney as I understand it the typical situation with instalment warrants is that the payment of the additional instalments is truly optional, a bit like a call option. If the instalment is not paid the holder simply loses ownership of the stock and nothing more.

But I've realised that BCSCA are not instalment warrants, they are an infrastructure fund unit, so the stuff about warrants on the asx does not apply to them anyway.

The solution imo would have been to suspend the stock when the price fell to say 50c or 25c per share. Below that price they became a very high risk investment that in my view should not have been kept available any more to retail investors.
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

Hi, I have been given the go ahead to post this again...:)

I have bought and sold hundreds of shares online, and wouldn't consider myself a naive investor. However I am now the proud owner of a $ 4 million debt, thanks to buying $2,000 worth of Brisconnect shares.

I use Commsec to buy my shares, it's a great way to buy shares. All the info you could possibly need to research to make a buy decision. After researching all of the bcsca pages I made my decision to buy them fully prepared to lose my money or hopefully make a nice multiple gain. (I also bought 18 other penny dredfulls that week)

The amazing thing about this whole process is that the first time that you are told that bcsca is a contributing share is the instant you hit the buy button and the contract note is generated. What a lovely surprise that was...

Here are some interesting screen caps attached of the whole process

bcsca's depth page = No mention of being a contributing share (when I bought there were plenty of buyers)

bcsca's main view page = No mention of being a contributing share

bcsca's forcasts page = No mention of being a contributing share

bcsca's financials page = No mention of being a contributing share

bcsca's company info page = No mention of being a contributing share

bcsca's news page = No articles when I bought the shares, but theres articles now hence nobody buying them.

bcsca's announcements page = The one link (circled) that leads to the very missable fineprint that bcsca is a contributing share!!

bcsca's analysis page = No mention of being a contributing share

And finally this is the killer. The buy page, where it states clearly the total cost of the transaction. As you can see there is no mention of the further $4 million.

This is not a simple matter as some have suggested that we should have known better. The boss of Brisconnect says that the code bcsca indicates that its a contributing share, that the CA is what identifies it as such. I'm not sure when this information became common knowlege, but I for one didn't know this. I spent 5 hours searching the ASX website and couldn't find any info explaining the fact that CA indicates a contributing share. I did a google search and out of thousands of websites the only page that did explain it was this one http://www.trading-plan.com/basics_asx_codes.html

There are only 3 shares in the whole industrials sector that are contributing shares, they are not common, so you would think that they would make this fact far more obvious.

it's no accident that hundreds if not thousands of small investors have fallen for this. Brisconnect, their underwriters, and the ASX need to fix this debacle so that they don't have this happen again.....:2twocents

Well if you were to write and complain about this to someone - who would it be ASIC? The ASX? Your local member? The shareholders association?

I think someone should be taking this on.

I must disagree with the above posters.

One should not buy shares unless one is aware of the consequences.

Blind Freddie would have been aware that BCSCA was a contributing share and had a $2 kicker attached to its ridiculously low price.

More regulation will only lead to higher transaction costs for traders and investors.

Many naive investors lose daily on the asx and a fair few so called sophisticated investors as well.

It is easier to lose on the asx than win at present.

If a share price looks too good to be true it probably is.

Just because a few folk make a simple basic mistake should not lead to even more regulation.

gg

gg
 
Re: Brisconnections shareholders - financial ruin

I must disagree with the above posters.

One should not buy shares unless one is aware of the consequences.

Blind Freddie would have been aware that BCSCA was a contributing share and had a $2 kicker attached to its ridiculously low price.

More regulation will only lead to higher transaction costs for traders and investors.

Many naive investors lose daily on the asx and a fair few so called sophisticated investors as well.

It is easier to lose on the asx than win at present.

If a share price looks too good to be true it probably is.

Just because a few folk make a simple basic mistake should not lead to even more regulation.

gg

gg

I do agree with that - but we must consider the potential ramifications here. An individual can make a rather simple mistake here - a mistake with a mere $500, and wind up with 1 million dollars in liabilities! An 18 year old, fresh out of high school might buy a few hundred worth of these stocks in a drunken haste, in the spirit of a roulette spin - and wind up potentially losing everything they have! That's just insane.
 
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