Court rules in favour of Basis Capital investors

Chris Freeman

A Supreme Court of New South Wales ruling in favour of BT Financial Group has brought investors who applied for units in two Basis Capital funds in June 2007 one step closer to recouping their money.

The court’s judgement that the June application monies were never properly a part of the Basis Yield and Basis Australia-Rim Opportunity funds means that more than $23 million must now be returned to investors.

It also found in favour of June redeemers, who will now be treated as creditors of the two Basis funds, with their proceeds calculated on the basis of the relevant fund’s value as at June 30, 2007.

Head of BT Wrap Chris Freeman described the ruling as “great news for investors in the funds, who have been waiting for over a year for clarity and certainty on the status of their application monies”.

“While there is still some way to go before the money is returned, BT Wrap has been able to collectively represent investors’ interests in a way that would be out of the reach of many individual investors.”

BT agreed to act as the representative defendant for all investors who made applications in June 2007 (including through BT Wrap), as well as to provide input into the case for other representative defendants.

This followed the commencement of proceedings by Basis Capital in the Supreme Court of NSW in January 2008 to seek declarations on the rights of investors in the Basis Yield and Basis Australia-Rim Opportunity funds.