KEY POINTS:
Only around 30 of an estimated 10,000 Feltex shareholders have opted not to sue the former directors, owners and advisers of the failed carpet maker.
Last month shareholders launched a unique group action which required those who bought shares in, and subsequent to, the 2004 Feltex float to actively opt out if they didn't want to be part of it.
The shareholders have filed a claim in the High Court to get their money back, and if they succeed, that could be as much as $254 million - the amount invested in the public float.
The deadline for opting out is 4pm today. After that, shareholders are considered to be part of the action.
The solicitor acting for the shareholders, Garry Wakefield, said as of last week only around 30 had opted out. Four of those were individuals, and the rest were parties associated with the advisers targeted in the action - because to stay in would mean they were effectively suing themselves.
The shareholders have unnamed backers who are prepared to fund the court action for the next year. They are putting up their money on a no-win, no-fee basis.
If shareholders remain in the group, their share of the legal costs will be deducted out of any award they win.
The total amount budgeted for the action, including costs if the shareholders lose, is $2.5 million.
The shareholders allege they were misled by the prospectus for the float. In the gun are former Feltex chairman Tim Saunders, chief executive Sam Magill, and directors John Feeney, Peter Hunter, Peter Thomas, Craig Horrocks and Joan Withers, who all signed the prospectus.
Also targeted are the firm that offered Feltex for sale, Credit Suisse First Boston Asian Merchant Partners; an associated company and the joint lead managers of the float, First New Zealand Capital and Forsyth Barr.
Wakefield said he had been contacted virtually "every hour" since the action was announced by shareholders supporting it.
He said many were feeling gung-ho.
"They're quite happy with the fact that they're given the right to make their own decisions if they want and that they've been included, and most of them are quite happy to stay on."
He said one elderly lady who contacted him this week had approached her share broker to invest in Pumpkin Patch, but had been talked out of it and put into Feltex instead. She lost her entire investment.
