> how can EVERY INVESTOR get their legitimate shares if there is not enough to go around? Obviously, either I am missing something that is clear to everyone else, or I am worried too much about being the unlucky victim...this must come from losing too many times in musical chairs. <
*Now* I understand.
And, no, I don't know the exact answer. I don't recall reading anything here on SI which suggests that anybody knows *for certain sure* the correct answer.
My *guess* is that there is a standard procedure for handling such cases, at least within the USA. If anybody takes a hit when the music stops, I predict (but do not know) that it will be a brokerage. First place you'll look is to the brokerage which sold you the phantom shares. They'll pay you the dollar equivalent of whatever the new shares plus warrants are trading at ... or even buy up enough new shares and warrants on the post-exchange open market to make you "whole" again. Thus, in effect though not in actual practice, new shares will have been used to substitute for old phantom shares ... over a period of time ... even though it was not as a 1:1 exchange effected by the official Transfer Agent.
Parenthetically, I see the warrants as the real kicker here, because there is a finite quantity of them. No matter the price, there will only ever be enough to cover 1x the authorized shares. That is the diabolical part of RA's plan (and is the primary reason I am following this saga, as my holdings of PKGP are very small).
And then your brokerage will go after the brokerage which sold them the phantom shares, using whatever rules that brokerages have established for resolving such issues. That latter brokerage will go after the market maker who provided the phantom shares ... created by naked short selling on their part ... etc. At some place in this retro-chain, somebody may be unable to cough up enough to pay for all these new shares and will go bust.
If it's your USA brokerage, you are protected to something like $500,000 per account by the SIPC.
If its somebody else ... selling brokerage or market maker ... tough luck, but you've gotten your money.
Are you missing something that is clear to everyone else? I don't think so.
Are you worried too much about being the unlucky victim? Perhaps.
JSb. |
