Opus Cranberries?

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Taggart
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Opus Cranberries?

Post by Taggart »

I only heard about this entity yesterday, so it's all new to me.

All I have to go on, are a reporter's story in the Vancouver Sun in the two links below.

Published: Thursday, December 01, 2005

Broker steered couple to risky buy, panel told

Published: Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Investors confused by complexities of cranberries

Plus a couple of new releases:

Knightswood Financial Corp.: News Release

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - July 12, 2007) - Knightswood Financial Corp. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:KWF) announces that it has today consented to allowing Opus Cranberries Financial Corp. and Opus Cranberries II Financial Corp. (the "Financial Corp.'s"), both subsidiary companies of the Company, to begin an orderly wind-up of their affairs. The termination of the business of the Financial Corp.'s is as contemplated in their 1996 and 1997 financial offerings, respectively. The Financial Corp.'s intend to begin distributing their assets, consisting of shares of Opus Cranberries Corp. and cash, or a combination thereof, to holders of bonds issued by the Financial Corp.'s.

Knightswood Financial Corp.: Disposition of Subsidiaries-Opus Cranberries Financial Corp. and Opus Cranberries II Financial Corp.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 20, 2008) - Knightswood Financial Corp. (TSX VENTURE: KWF.V) -

The Company announces that it has exercised its put options to sell all the shares of Opus Cranberries Financial Corp. and Opus Cranberries II Financial Corp. The effective date of this transaction is December 31, 2008.

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Does anyone have any more detailed information on this? What return is expected by the original investors in this corporation? Have there been any income distributions during the ten plus years of Opus Cranberries existence?
Taggart
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by Taggart »

This ties in with a problem a relative of mine is having in Vancouver.

I don't know even know what this investment in Opus Cranberries consisted of? Shares, bonds, I haven't a clue. All I know is that a lot of investors seem to have lost a lot of money. Nor do I know if they were even listed, which ties in with this short thread on delisted shares in an RRSP.

The person who does her taxes doesn't seem to know how to deal with this problem, nor does the financial planner at the large bank brokerage she's with.

She does need some professional advice from someone who knows what they're doing regarding what to do with what remains of this investment that's in her RRSP. Thank you in advance to anyone who can come up with an idea of who to contact. If she can't get a tax accountant who can resolve it to the CRA's satisfaction then she may have to look for a tax lawyer, but who I don't know.
Chuck
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by Chuck »

Since it is inside an RRSP, I'm wondering why CRA would really need any satisfaction. She can't claim any sort of capital loss right?

Anyways, here's a link with some legalese about the structure of Opus Cranberries that a tax/securities accountant could probably make sense of.

http://do.bcsc.bc.ca/comdoc.nsf/0/82fc3 ... endocument
Taggart
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by Taggart »

Chuck wrote:Since it is inside an RRSP, I'm wondering why CRA would really need any satisfaction. She can't claim any sort of capital loss right?

Anyways, here's a link with some legalese about the structure of Opus Cranberries that a tax/securities accountant could probably make sense of.

http://do.bcsc.bc.ca/comdoc.nsf/0/82fc3 ... endocument
Thanks Chuck. I think that was the original intent when they first filed the investment with the B.C. Securities Commission but it obviously hasn't proved successful.

"The latest response came a few days from Opus:

"Opus still has a contingent interest in the 53 acres of land sold to the Apollo Group until 2032. If, from now till then, the use of the land is changed or the land is sold to a third party, 25% of any increased value over and above the agriculture value will accrue to all Opus shareholders. We therefore, do not recommend our shareholders to dispose of their Opus shares."

One major problem is that the shares are being held by a bank holding company, B2B Bank. They are charging her more per year for holding the share certificates than any income she receives from the remnants of the investment. She asked her new major bank brokerage whether they would hold them, but was told if they were transferred there, then they would also charge a fee for holding them there.

Even withdrawing the shares out of an RRSP gets complicated:

Client is holding small business in his account.



Client can remove S/B from RRSP in 2 ways (if company is Active):



For In-kind de-registration:

1) Investor Representation Letter – complete and sign by client

2) Issuer Representation Letter – complete and sign by S/B on their company’s letterhead

3) Cheque made payable to B2B issued by client for Withholding Tax / we can take WTX from cash if there is sufficient cash



Withholding tax will be provided after Issuer Representation Letter received as we need to calculate the withholding tax based on current fair market value of the S/B shares. T4RSP will be issued.

Small Business Transaction fee of $200.00 + Tax will be charged.



Share certificate will be returned to client. However, it is the client’s responsibility to send cert. to S/B . for re-registration in client’ s name as it no longer belongs to the RRSP account.



For Redemption (S/B re-purchase shares from client):

1) Investor Representation Letter – complete and sign by client

2) Issuer Representation Letter – complete and sign by S/B on their company’s letterhead

3) Cheque made payable to B2B issued by S/B for the proceed of the sale. (cheque amount will be based on the current fair market value)



Please note: In the event that the share price differs significantly from the valuation that we currently have on file, then we require further documentation (such as an audited interim financial statement or 3rd party share valuation letter provided C.A or Law Firm) to support the fluctuation in the share price.



If client claims the S/B is no longer in business, we need one of the following document listed below to prove company has been insolvent:



Certificate of Dissolution / Trustee in Bankruptcy / Corporate Registry Search Profile / Letters from a third party law firm or C.A stating company is no longer in business and shares has no value. However the opinion letter must come from well know professional firm such as Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Price Water House Coopers, Deliotte, etc.



Share will be devalued to NIL once approved by management. Client can then send in the Investor Representation Letter for Sale or Deregistration to remove worthless S/B from account.

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Perhaps after reading the above you'll realize why she needs professional expertise to resolve this.
Spudd
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by Spudd »

Although they recommend not disposing of her shares, is it possible for her to do so, either by selling them or just telling the bank that is holding them to throw them away?
Taggart
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by Taggart »

Spudd wrote:Although they recommend not disposing of her shares, is it possible for her to do so, either by selling them or just telling the bank that is holding them to throw them away?
I sort of doubt there's any open market for actually selling these shares, but I'll ask further next time I talk to her. As for throwing them away, I've never heard of anyone doing that while the share certificates are in an RRSP, but then again I guess anythings possible.
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Re: Opus Cranberries?

Post by RobinC »

By far the largest scam I have ever been stupid enough to invest in and that was only because I listened to a low life financial advisor. This investment cost me a large portion of my retirement income. The prospectus reads that one should not have invested unless their NET income was 80,000 per year. I however, didn't read the fine print. And lost well over 25,000 on this stupid investment. Very small tax advantage and in addition paid over 300 a year for 7 years for interest on the initial payment as the original investment was 35,000 per unit. I was short by 15,000 but was overly pressured to sign. Yes, my mistake. Now just today got a letter from Opus to inform me that the company that took over the cranberry field "Apollo" has gone into receivership so no return on investment this year. This company "opus" was and is a sincerely badly run personally entitled entity. Please stay away from these guys. They are not only a joke they are just a sad bunch of board of directors that couldn't run a car wash never mind a company that was supposed to succeed. Not.
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