You got it right and the so called PA's that put people into them did the same amount of due diligence that those did in the USA when putting their clients into Madoff funds. However some there will get sued and have to pay back commission that wont even happen here. After a brief period the whole commission thing will be forgotten so that it can happen again and again.
I had a chat to one of the RE working through these issues. He gave me some insight.
The growers have rights but they have to pay the lease if the property goes in administration prior to the growers scheme being dissolved than there are claims that the growers have.
His view and it was personal for me was that the Korda Olam deal was not done and dusted it still required certain processes to be carried out and one of them was resolving the grower schemes. He has nothing to do with the TIM schemes but said they are all ultimately similar.
I noted that on behalf of some of the almond growers there has been sabre rattling. His view was that unless they had money to fight their case it would fizzle out but said if they could raise some funds they could trow the spanner in.
My view however is that the growers are so far removed from the actual farming operations that they are unlikely to throw more of their money at it and there is no catalyst to create a cohesive unit with money to solve these issues. Any prospective RE needs money and that can only come from landowners or Growers. Neither wants this entire package as they invested in different components of this rather than the complete farming company. Right now his view is that there is so much negativity that these assets may well be sold for unbelievably low prices but that is supply and demand issues. I think that these projects will be snapped up by the Olams of this world and Australia will be the loser. Go onto their website and view their interim presentation you will see how much they value agricultral pastures and access to them into the future. You can also look at Chaoda (china but listed in Hong Kong)
If you do the hard slog you can put a spanner in the works but it has to be worth it.
Only hold TODHA TIMHB
TIM Price at posting:
4.4¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held