Opes Prime
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Opes Prime Group Limited is an Australian margin lending and stockbroking firm which suffered a dramatic collapse in 2008.
[edit] Overview
The company was founded in 2003 by Laurie Emini and Julian Smith. Emini, an Albanian emigrant to Australia, had worked for the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) until he was retrenched in 1997, and began share trading from his home in Templestowe. Smith, a British national, had emigrated to Australia in 1993, and ran the securities and investments division of stockbroker Ord Minnett.[1] By 2008, the company had offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore and employed about 80 people.[2]
The company's downfall was revealed on March 28, 2008 when the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced it was launching an investigation into Opes Prime Stockbroking, and that the company had gone into administrative receivership the previous day, with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu appointed as receivers and Ferrier Hodgson as administrators.[3] Opes Prime's secured debt is believed to be over AU$1 billion, with its major secured creditors including the ANZ Banking Group (owed around $650 million), and Merrill Lynch.
Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto made headlines when he travelled to Singapore on behalf of an anonymous group of investors in an attempt to retrieve their money.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Urban, Rebecca: Little-known Opes, spectacular failure, The Australian, April 5, 2008.
- ^ ASIC to investigate Opes Prime, The Age, March 28, 2008.
- ^ 08-61 ASIC launches investigation into Opes Prime, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, March 28, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
- ^ Gatto joins the money hunt, The Age, April 8, 2008.
