BBY receivers to transfer clients to other broker
Rival stockbrokers are set to pick up clients of BBY Ltd, after the company entered voluntary administration last week.
The Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that Australian Financial Services Licences (AFSLs) held by BBY Ltd, BBY Advisory Services Pty Ltd and SmarTrader Limited, have been suspended for three years to 28 May 2018.
"The suspension follows the appointment of Stephen Vaughan and Ian Hall as joint administrators to these companies on 17 May 2015," the regulator said.
"Steven Parbery and Brett Lord were appointed receivers and managers of BBY Ltd and BBY Advisory Services Pty Ltd on 18 May 2015.
"Importantly, the terms of the suspension allow the Receivers and Administrators to transfer a client's ‘holder identification number' (HIN) to another market participant in accordance with instructions from the client."
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) has reported that AIMS Financial Group has entered an asset purchase agreement with BBY's administrators.
The AFR quoted AIMS chairman, George Wang, as saying "We are now actively working with the team at BBY to get things back and running normally as soon as practical".
"AIMS subsidiary AIMS Securities is changing its name to BBY Asia Pacific Group to help enable BBY's 56,000 clients to recommence trading and access shares frozen by the suspension."
Meanwhile, Ord Minnett executive chairman Karl Morris, told the ABC's The Business last night, that while some investors who dealt with the firm were protected from collateral damage, there were concerns.
"There's been some issues with regard to HINs (holder identification numbers) transferring," he said.
"Some clients' positions [have been] closed out because they weren't able to transfer in a timely matter."
AUTHOR
Nicholas O'Donoghue
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