Fairfax columnist Michael West yesterday stirred up controversy over the parallels between the business model, and funding model, of Lift Capital and that of Opes Prime.
Lift, a Sydney-based firm, offers margin loans over around 400 ASX listed stocks and uses lending agreements that transfer ownership of shares to nominee companies.
Writing in
Business Day West said that Merrill Lynch was the lender to Lift and that "its exposure to Lift was $650 million on stocks loans of $800 million."