Acomprehensive and amicable solution. That is how Singapore and Malaysia's stock exchanges have described their settlement on unfreezing about M$17 billion (HK$34.8 billion) worth of Malaysian shares previously traded on Singapore's over-the-counter market, the Central Limit Order Book (Clob).
The 18-month impasse over the frozen shares may be edging towards a close, but not all of Clob's 172,000 penalised investors have viewed the proposed resolution as 'amicable'.
'Score: Sharks 2 Shareholder 0,' wrote Clob investor Andrew Chia Lye Hock to Singapore's Business Times this week, summing up some broader public sentiments.
In essence, Clob investors, who had their stocks frozen when Malaysia imposed capital controls in September 1998, have been presented with three options.
None would appear ideal, but many Clob investors feel they may have little choice but to accept the first of the alternatives.
Investors can either pay a 1.5 per cent transfer commission to get their shares back to a private shelf-company set up by a friend of Malaysian Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.