FY amusement,, On One Street, Shares of Bre-X
Rise in Heavy Trading Action
By MARK HEINZL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TORONTO -- Those Bre-X Minerals Ltd. shares are
worth something after all.
Paul O'Neill was doing a brisk business hawking share
certificates of the scandal-ridden gold company on the
streets of downtown Toronto last week.
Standing near the former Toronto Stock Exchange, Mr.
O'Neill wore an old black hat with a yellow cardboard
Bre-X sign on top. The sight drew scores of curious
passersby, some of whom paid US$18 for a framed
certificate. Rolled-up certificates went for $7.
"You wouldn't believe it," Mr. O'Neill said, when asked
how sales were going. He added that he made nearly
$50 in the first half hour of his shift.
The certificates being sold on the streets aren't the real
thing. They're reprints of a certificate that a colleague of
Mr. O'Neill had from his own Bre-X holdings. That
hawker, who wouldn't give his name, said he'd had an
offer of $215 -- more than the shares' price at their
peak -- for a genuine Bre-X certificate. Sales are so
good that the operation might head to New York, he
added.
In Toronto, where the Bre-X fiasco still dominates
conversation, some brokers are buying the share
certificates to remind themselves of the risks of playing
the market. Others are making peace offerings to clients
who lost a lot of money on Bre-X shares.
A year ago, Bre-X was valued at some $4 billion, as the
tiny Calgary, Alberta, mining company touted its
discovery of the world's biggest gold deposit in
Indonesia. Shares fetched $200 each at their peak last
year on the TSE, which closed in April in favor of
automated trading. Independent mining consultants
earlier this year proved the gold discovery to be a giant
fraud, and sophisticated mining specialists and retail
investors alike lost money in the shares' plunge.
But in an early sign of demand for souvenirs, brokers
said that after the company was delisted, some people
bought shares at eight cents apiece in hopes of getting a
certificate.
Last week, passerby Bernard Chinapen stopped to take
a look at the Bre-X certificates, but declined to buy
one. "I don't want to be reminded," he said, admitting he
lost more than $7,000 on Bre-X shares. He still plays
the market, though.
A few more customers gathered. The hawker started his
pitch. "Greatest thing on the market... ."
Ret |
