We confess to being impressed amused by the antics of one Ms Suzanne Lee Forster, an Australian, seemingly, representing the Hassle Free Share Sales Pty Ltd.
Her scam involves pitching low-ball bids for companies and then cleaning up when gormless shareholders accept the comical terms.
Unlike our former favourite fantasy bidder, Edward Pastorini of Goldfields fame, Ms Forster’s offers are for real - and they appear to be legal.
British fund management group Henderson appears to be the latest firm to draw Ms Forster’s attention, with the Australian having reportedly sent shareholders takeover terms pitched at A$1.01 per share through her firm, Hassle Free Share Sales.
That compares with a market price of 105p a share in London - or $2.19.
It is not known whether any Henderson shareholders were conned into selling their stock for half its market value, but Henderson felt obliged to put out a statement warning investors not to accept the offer.
Ms Forster has in the past made offers to shareholders of other companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to buy shares at a price significantly below the current market value of those shares. Henderson Group does not endorse any unsolicited offer by Hassle Free Share Sales Pty Ltd or any other companies and is in no way associated with these offers.
Ms Forster seems to have got a copy of registered holders of Henderson’s Chess Depository Interests - stock formatted for trading on the Australian stock Exchange, in the same way that Americans trade ADRs.
Hassle Free Share Sales is assumed to be the offspring of Share Buyback Group (sole director - SL Forster) which last year made a bid for Bendigo Bank, pitched at A$10 a share when the market price was $16. That triggered a warning statement from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission at the time.
‘The Bendigo Bank has told ASIC that the average age of its shareholders is over retirement age, so there would be a large proportion of elderly shareholders who may be more easily taken advantage of’, (executive director Greg) Tanzer said.
In addition, the Bendigo Bank has many shareholders with relatively small holdings. Many shareholders have held their shares in the company for a long time, such as about 40 per cent of shareholders who have held their shares for 10 years or more.
Mr Tanzer said these shareholders may be less experienced in share trading and possibly not so up-to-date with current share prices.
For what it’s worth, according to the Australian press, Hassle Free is Melborne-based, with Ms Forster working with a former nightclub boss called Patrick Dromi. In fact there is an outbreak of such antics down under: two weeks ago a guy called David Tweed from the Australian Share Purchasing Corporation offered shareholders in AMP A$5.35 for their shares when the stock was actually trading at A$6.92.
