Angus Willoughby

KPMG has told a judge there is no evidence that Arrium's share price would have changed even if it had recorded a $2.8 billion impairment, urging the judge to reject the shareholder class action's "intuitive" case on loss. 

Former directors of steelmaker Arrium have rejected shareholder class action claims that the company's collapse was foreseeable, calling claims they had their heads in the sand “arrant nonsense”. 

KPMG failed to bring the necessary scepticism to the task of auditing failing steel manufacturer Arrium, instead leaving contradictory evidence unresolved and giving the company a clean bill of health, a shareholder class action has told the court.

A shareholder class action against KPMG and ex-Arrium directors says the company's accounts were infected by "chronic and systemic overoptimism", with the former operator of Whyalla Steelworks portraying as viable a business that was impaired up to $2.8 billion.

A trial in related cases by developer Villawood over a logistics estate near Wallan, Victoria has been pushed back to next year.

A judge has awarded private equity firm CPE Capital, formerly CHAMP, $96 million in a dispute over a profit sharing agreement that was part of a deal to provide $150 million in vendor finance to FX Group Holdings for shares in trading platform Pepperstone.

The daughter of a Villawood director accused of a fraudulent design to divert valuable management fees for a development in Victoria has invoked her privilege against self-incrimination over the developer’s concerns that she may have destroyed evidence. 

German pharmaceutical company Heidelberg Pharma has filed a lawsuit against Australian drug maker Telix alleging breach of a licence agreement for its kidney cancer diagnostic drug Zircaix. 

The board administering the ESSSuper fund, which is facing a class action alleging it miscalculated the entitlements of transport shift workers in Victoria, has denied any liability, saying it was not involved in determining how entitlements were calculated.

An email to lawyers at Clifford Chance relied on to show investor Fiona Lock’s understanding of a contested $150 million profit sharing deal with trading platform Pepperstone did not open the door to further correspondence.