Magnis in attempt to strongarm online trading forum HotCopper for user information

Magnis Energy is attempting to force trading forum HotCopper to hand over the real names of users making negative comments about the company.

Magnis chairman Frank Poullas. Picture: Britta Campion

Magnis Energy – once a sharemarket darling as investors piled into electric battery stocks – is attempting to force trading forum HotCopper to hand over the real names of users making negative comments about the company.

New documents filed with the Federal Court show Magnis and its chairman, Frank Poullas, requesting Report Card, the owner of HotCopper, to hand over the full name and address of each of a list of users on its forum.

This comes as Magnis appeared to miss another deadline for a long-awaited start of production at its EV battery plant in New York State.

In June, the company told the ASX that global supply chain issues had delayed the start of production at its Endicott plant – which was originally scheduled to open in 2019.

Magnis, on June 22, said automated production was expected to commence “within the next 5 weeks from today”. The company did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Mr Poullas has made numerous claims about the start of production, in November telling one interview it would start “within weeks”. He then told the ASX Investor channel the business expected “towards the later end of first half this calendar year we should be getting into that fully automated production”.

The company, which now has a market capitalisation of $300m but whose value has fallen 46 per cent since December 31, is the focus of considerable discussion on the HotCopper forums.

In court filings, Magnis and Mr Poullas demand the details of 15 HotCopper users using pseudonyms such as Mondrian, Fritzl, Stickshift and NoAdds.

Some of the accounts are not active, and haven’t posted about the company since last year.

Jag Sanger, the managing director of The Market Herald, the ASX-listed company which ultimately owns HotCopper, said the business was considering Mr Poullas’ court filings.

“Though many people know we operate the largest shareholder platforms in Australia, many don’t realise we also operate one of the largest market surveillance and moderation platforms in Australia,” he said.

“We work closely with companies and ASIC to ensure that both listed companies and shareholders have their voice.”

The Magnis court filings request “any IP address/es used by each of the prospective respondents when opening their respective HotCopper account and/or making any of the offending posts” and the “internet service provider for each of the prospective respondents”.

In December, The Australian reported that Magnis was threatening former directors, executives and major investors who it claims were circulating damaging information.

Magnis has been under considerable scrutiny from both the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and the ASX relating to the potential manipulation of its share price and some of the statements it has made to investors about its forecast revenue and contracts signed.

In a letter sent by lawyers engaged by Magnis in November, K&L Gates partner Russell Lyons accused several people associated with the company of “acting in concert with a group of shareholders (and former investors)” in using an anonymous email to “disseminate misleading, deceptive and defamatory content”.

The Federal Court application made by Magnis against the HotCopper users was prepared by the same law firm, K&L Gates, and its partner Christien Corns.

The Federal Court declined to release Magnis’ affidavit filed in support of the application to access the user data, noting the matter had not yet been heard.

Magnis shares dropped 3 per cent on Wednesday, or 1c, to close at 31c. In the company’s latest update, released on Friday, Magnis said the Endicott plant, owned by its subsidiary Imperium3 New York, was 84 per cent complete at the end of June “and is at the final stage before fully automated production can commence”.

“At that time the completion rate is expected to be in the vicinity of 88 per cent … the remaining 12 per cent includes some cosmetic changes to the factory, minor works to an internal office area and the gradual ramp up of production,” it told investors.

The Australian has previously published documents – obtained through a freedom of information request – that showed Magnis had been approached by ASIC in mid-September with requests to hand over various documents. The request for Magnis to produce documents came one day after The Australian’s initial report into the batteries company that raised questions about the veracity of some of the $900m in contracts that had been signed.

Despite providing no detail, Magnis claimed in its response to ASX queries that the Imperium3 business in New York would have yearly revenues of $80m in 2022, rising to $1.8bn in 2027.

In November, Magnis was forced to retract a claim made at its general meeting that the company could be worth $10bn.