FULL DISCLOSURE: This is sponsored content for Power Nickel.
Power Nickel (TSXV: PNPN) has filed an official complaint with regulators pertaining to a continuous imbalance in positions for its stock at brokers.
The company says it has reason to believe there is a negative imbalance of well over 9,000,000 shares on the 80% of its float that it could obtain data on. The balance is said to have started at around 3.0 million shares, before growing to the current size.
Power Nickel defines the imbalance as a broker having an insufficient amount of shares in its depository account when compared to the number of shares beneficially owned by customers. This imbalance is said to be indicative of potential naked short selling or other manipulative actions, which ultimately seek to drive the price of the equity down.
The data was collected and analyzed using ShareIntel’s proprietary DRIL-Down process, which is designed to identify suspicious market activity. Wes Christian, a specialist attorney on the matter, suggests that the 20% of the float not accounted for can “historically contain even larger imbalances.”
“As Founder of Save Canadian Mining, we have been at the forefront of trying to bring industry and investor attention to this problem and to create evidence to compel Regulators, Exchanges, Securities Commissions, and Government to act to prevent the continued destruction of the Canadian capital markets which for a very long time made us the center of the mining world,” commented Terry Lynch, Power Nickel CEO.
Power Nickel had announced its intention to file the complaint in late November, stating at the time they expect the complaint to cause CIRO and FINRA to investigate the investment banks that have been found to consistently maintain imbalances of over 100,000 shares for a period of at least 8 weeks. Over the last 16 weeks, these imbalances are said to have hit in excess of 9.0 million shares in the case of Power Nickel.
READ: Power Nickel Raises Flow Through Funds At $0.90 A Share For Next Stage Of Feasibility Study
“We have now delivered the complaint and evidence to the regulators; we also are providing it to our industry association, PDAC, as there is widespread unhappiness from many mining companies who are experiencing the same issues Power Nickel has faced. We are the first to deliver the evidence, but we certainly won’t be the last,” continued Lynch.
As the founder of Save Canadian Mining, Lynch is an outspoken name on the topic of naked short selling. On November 24, he held a “Short Selling Emergency Session,” which featured speakers that include Eric Sprott, David Wenger, and Wes Christian, as he works to bring awareness to the problem faced by the Canadian capital markets.
Power Nickel last traded at $0.22 on the TSX Venture.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Power Nickel is a client of Canacom Group, the parent company of The Deep Dive. Canacom Group is currently long the equity of Power Nickel. The author has been compensated to cover Power Nickel on The Deep Dive, with The Deep Dive having full editorial control. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. We may buy or sell securities in the company at any time. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security.
