| Australian short seller Nathan Koppikar says his homeland is no longer a suitable market to bet against ASX-listed companies because of the dominance of superannuation funds, investor cliques and regulators.
“I don’t think it’s a market that is receptive to activist shorts – there’s not a lot of true activism out there. Melbourne-born Mr Koppikar, who still carries his Australian passport, said he had shorted ASX-listed stocks many years ago, including Woolworths when the supermarket giant faced tighter margins and competition from Coles and Aldi.Other stocks he has looked at “many, many times” include Harvey Norman and WiseTech, but the hedge fund manager has not shorted anything in Australia for the past five years.
“You’ve got the superannuation funds there that own enormous amounts of the stock and the stocks don’t trade in relation to the traditional fundamentals you’d expect to see,” Mr Koppikar said.