I hate to bust everyone's balloon with "it's too late to cover" stuff but I had posted last week that depending how the distribution of the shs is treated, it might not be to late. The record date is a marker in time not the final answer as to who gets the IGMB shs. If the item is treated like a true div. with the usual R/D, Ex/D and paydate process, then anyone who sells the stock on or after the EX/d would be entitled to the stock....people buying the stock before the EX/d would be entitled to the stock...simple process. DTCC ( the depository/settlement agent for 99% of all trades) controls the process with their "accounting/entitlement " tracking systems. In other words say that on record date broker ABC Corp has a position of 100,000 shs ECSl on the books at DTCC, but before the EX/D, they buy another 10,000 from broker XYZ( R/D total 100,000 also)....DTCC will pick up the trade and adj. the record date totals to reflect new position of 110,000 for ABC and now 90,000 for XYZ. This happens all the time and is something the street has been dealing with forever. When I first started on wall street there were whole departments( Stock Record) that had to chase divs. all over the place and claim stock or cash depending on entitlement rules/regs. A lot of brokerage firms went under because their back office staff lost control of Ex/D trading and never got control of their positions. That was one of the major reasons why the DTC ( now DTCC) was established. Just wanted to put this out so everyone might have a better understanding of how this could operate.
