00:00 It was once a rising star in financial services. Now Zip, the buy now pay later hopeful, is
00:07 facing the ire of shareholders who claim they were forced to sell out when the share price
00:15 was at a seven year low.
00:16 It was an initiative that was a few months in the planning.
00:19 The week before the sale plan was announced, the company's chair Diane Smith-Gander and
00:24 another director, Meredith Scott, bought a substantial amount of stock. They complied
00:29 with the rules, but many small investors feel they were unfairly treated because they have
00:35 missed out.
00:35 I think the purchase of shares by the key executives was a demonstration that they believed
00:41 in the future of the company and a strong signal to shareholders.
00:44 Zip announced the sale plan in October for shareholders who held less than $500 worth
00:50 of stock. The catch, if shareholders didn't want to sell their shares, they had to opt
00:55 out by November 20.
00:57 The ABC has spoken to some shareholders who said the communication wasn't clear. Many
01:03 only knew their shares had been sold after they'd disappeared from their brokerage accounts.
01:08 The company argues these investors were given adequate notice.
01:13 Investors were very well informed.
01:15 But of the 78,000 affected investors, almost 70,000 had their shares sold. They were paid
01:22 just over 40 cents a share. Since then, the price has more than doubled.
01:27 Corporate watchdog ASIC says it has had a small number of complaints about alleged misconduct
01:33 over the notice, but there was no evidence the company broke the listing rules.
01:38 ASIC says there's room for companies to make it more clear to investors what action needs
01:43 to be taken to retain their shares. But the Australian Securities Exchange says the rules
01:49 won't be changed.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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