Is Macquarie Bank involved in a bit of
bottom fishing around the carcass of Gympie Gold, the company that was
unstuck by a nasty fire in its Southland Colliery in the Hunter Valley
back in 2003?

This report
just issued by the receiver managers of Gympie (McGrath Nicol) doesn’t
name the party involved in negotiations to purchase the corporate shell
of Gympie. That will require the company having to go back into
administration, for the proper Deed of Arrangement to be agreed, and a
meeting of shareholders to be held. They will be asked to approve any
sale of the shell.

The report says the value of any purchase
won’t be much, but some shareholders want to know why Macquarie is
interested in Gympie Gold and are aware of the Millionaire Factory’s
reputation for turning dross into gold. They also know that MacBank
always ends up on the side of the fat fees and rich rewards and
therefore want to know how they can hang around to ride that.

The
receiver managers point out that any deal is likely to see a severe
dilution of the existing shareholders (15 to one is one suggested
ratio, which is pretty hard), but even that hasn’t been enough to deter
some from wanting a ride on whatever the MacBankers have planned for
poor old Gympie Gold’s shell.