LESSONS (TO BE) LEARNT FROM THE OPES PRIME INSOLVENCY

This article creates a narrative of the Opes Prime insolvency from the copious and sometimes confusing commentary available to the public. It explains the background to margin lending practices in Australia, the Opes Prime business model and the immediate reasons behind Opes Prime's collapse into dual external administrations. It clarifies the consequences of placing a company), into external administration in the current circumstances and the position of unsecured creditors. It also analyses the position of Opes Prime's major financiers - in particular; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Lid - and argues that the loner organisation has acted in the same way that any rational financier in its position would have acted. Moreover, the article analyses the potential for success of some of the proposed litigation. The only real winners may be the lawyers and their backers, the litigation funders. Finally it argues that although the immediate future of margin lending is uncertain and some of the legal techniques used to make it work from a creditor's perspective may be under fire, margin lending is not dead. It will only take a lift in the sharemarket to whet investors' appetites again.