A welcome site

David Potts

Sun Herald

15 June 2003

Directors of failed companies have come under fire for not keeping their shareholders informed of when they can write their shares of as a capital loss.

An estimated 200,000 shareholder have been hit by company collapses in the past couple of years.

Tony McLean, former executive officer of the Australian Shareholders Association, has set up www.delisted.com.au, which tracks down thousands of long forgotten companies.

“Shareholders are understandably angry after reading in the media about the failure of their company or seeing a bland announcement that an administrator has been appointed,” McLean said.

As a rule, the taxman requires a declaration from the liquidator that a company has been wound up before a capital loss can be claimed. So shares that have been delisted or suspended from the stock exchange don’t qualify. But deregistration does, so some earlier corporate collapses can be claimed by former shareholders.