Langbar International

nav1000 - 21 Dec'05 - 18:05 - 38589 of 38601
cant we find out any other way, how did the the Room service shareholders find out..

We had to do a lot of detective work. First we collected all the names amd data. Then each person identified their broker and contacted them to get:

1. A letter of representation, proving that they had purchased their shares and then
2. A letter advising us of the selling MM

The fact is that once we had this data, we could total up the numbers for each broker and check this against the share register. We contacted the Registrar is Capita (which is the same as Room Service), and obtained a list of the number of shares held by each nominee broker. Then we compared this to the list of names who had also purchased through the same broker, in the order in which they purchased.

Basically, as far as the registrar is concerned, it is first come first served. So if the registrar already has too many names against that nominee, he would not be able to register that persons interest in the nominee account.

After a while we had a list of people that we suspected had not received their shares. As soon as the Settlement Offer was made, we could identify everyone that had not received shares, as only the people that were shorted were eligible for the offer. However, even at the last minute, a few people received their shares very late and were excluded from the Offer.

I've already contacted Capita and started the ball rolling. We'll identify which shareholders have not received their shares and then find out the dates and details of the transaction. There is the possibility that these shareholders might be able to raise a complaint through the FOS and have the contracts cancelled and funds returned. But in my view, the MMs will probably fight this and claim that the contract has been frustrated by the CREST ISIN being frozen.

However - if the shares were not delivered even though the ISIN was operating, then there may be a legitimate claim against the MM for damages and with a few letters they may be persuaded that it would not be worth their while fighting a claim for compensation.

We'll see what information we get.