Opes Prime creditors accept deal

Of the former Opes clients who participated in the vote yesterday, 96 per cent by number and 92 per cent by value representing $457 million of the outstanding $631 million in claims backed the deal.

If approved by the Federal Court next month, the scheme of arrangement will resolve simultaneously 14 legal cases against the banks which have begun in several states and Hong Kong.

It will also provide creditors with dividends of 37c in the dollar about Christmas.

But the meeting was not without protest. A few former clients made at-times inflammatory entreaties against the deal, arguing that by accepting $226 million contributed by the banks Opes clients would deny themselves any chance of getting the banks to answer for their actions in court.

Opes estimated 600 clients lost share investments valued at $1.6 billion on March 27, 2008, when ANZ installed receivers at the firm and promptly sold the shares that Opes had offered it as security for its regular financing.

Opes clients, however, had been led to believe that they retained ownership of the shares and they argue they were misled.

Opes Prime's liquidator, John Lindholm, of Ferrier Hodgson, told the meeting that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had over the past 16 months interviewed all the key players involved in Opes, and an announcement about possible legal action was expected soon.

"They have done substantial investigations," Mr Lindholm said. "We expect ASIC to make an announcement shortly."

It is believed ASIC is yet to hand a brief to the Director of Public Prosecutions, but legal sources have told WeekendBusiness that the regulator may recommend criminal charges against Opes directors. It is believed it has also interviewed several ANZ employees who dealt with Opes.

An affidavit ASIC presented to the Federal Court in April 2008, soon after Opes collapsed, alleged that based on preliminary investigations Opes had engaged in "systematic manipulation" of client's share-trading accounts.

Mr Lindholm's investigations continue into possible insolvent trading by Opes Prime after the firm failed to make margin calls against several of its biggest clients who faced huge losses.

Opes's biggest single client was the Sydney businessman Chris Murphy, who accumulated about 5 per cent of Challenger Financial in 2007 but whose highly geared share portfolio sank deeply into the red in early 2008.

Mr Lindholm is also investigating if Opes made preferential payments to some creditors before it collapsed, and he is bound to pursue legal action against some of Opes's clients who owed the firm millions of dollars for their highly leveraged, but now non-existent, share portfolios.