OPERATORS of agribusiness-managed investment schemes would have to prove to the corporate regulator they had sufficient working capital to meet their obligations, under a proposal by the Ripoll inquiry this week.
It follows the high-profile failures of Australia's biggest agribusiness MIS operators, Timbercorp and Great Southern, in April and May, which left tens of thousands of investors out of pocket and sparked complex legal fights over the fate of MIS plantations and orchards.
The parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services, chaired by Labor MP Bernie Ripoll, examined the MIS collapses in an inquiry this year. But the committee has said it would wait for its main report on financial products and services - also known as the Ripoll inquiry - before recommending legislative changes.
That report, tabled late on Monday, included a call for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to require agribusiness MIS licensees to "demonstrate they have sufficient working capital to meet current obligations".
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