Lastly, this "shortfall" talk is just people trying to be alarmists.. I have no idea what pepper's balance sheet looks like, but I do know that they put up some funds with LPs to cover off margin requirements and such.
Further, we're talking about a business with revenues and profits in the hundreds of millions..
They are also in the process of going IPO. They have UBS and Citibank as underwriters.
If anyone of you aren't familiar with the IPO process, right now their books, accounting records, and entire business is basically being put under the microscope by the underwriters so they can properly price and sell off shares on the open market. Multiple 3rd parties are going to be liable if there's material differences between the prospectus, the financial records as presented when selling off the IPO, and reality. (And since Pepper settled with UBS and Citi, neither bank has backed out of the deal and both are comfortable moving forward.)
Do you really think the execs at Pepper would harpoon their own IPO (which is worth hundreds of millions to them personally in shareholder value,) for a few million now?
The Australian article shop posted was horseshit, written by someone who was either fed bad info (probably by rivals of Pepper) or just wanted to be an alarmist to get readers riled up.
At least that's my opinion. I don't even care to defend Pepper, I just hate the spreading of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt.)