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Posted on 26th July 2017 |
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This story on the BBC reports that BHP Billiton shareholders are suing BHP Billiton. They are doing this to recover their losses due to the slide in share prices (around 22%) after the dam collapse at one of the company's mines in Brazil in 2015. The dam failure at the Samarco mine (jointly owned by BHP and Vale, a Brazilian company) killed 19 people and led to Brazil's largest ever environmental disaster (supposedly - forest clearance is arguably Brazil's worst environmental catastrophe). Now shareholders are suing to recover lost shareholder value. There are, however, several things wrong with this picture.
Owning shares is not some children's game, where you make money if everything goes well, but if something goes wrong you will be bailed out by the courts or a government. Is is a game with potential rich rewords, but significant risks, and also with responsibilities. The power mostly lies with the big shareholders, not the small hobby investors, but these large shareholders are precisely who is behind this lawsuit. Time to either get out of investing in shares, or man-up and face the consequences. |