Final bids for Virgin Australia were lodged on Monday by investment firm Bain Capital and private equity investor Cyrus Capital Partners, and the struggling airline’s administrators are giving themselves a week to pick a winner.
The competition cop has given its blessing to Australian Finance Group’s $120 million acquisition of rival Connective Group, after raising concerns the deal could squeeze smaller players out of the mortgage aggregator market.
The competition regulator has raised concerns about Google’s planned acquisition of fitness device company Fitbit, saying the $3 billion tie-up could further cement the dominance of the search engine giant in online advertising.
Slater and Gordon’s conduct when settling a previous securities class action against it armed the lead plaintiff with the information he needed to later bring a class action against Arnold Bloch Leibler, a court has heard.
Arnold Bloch Leibler has been granted access to due diligence docs related to Slater and Gordon’s $1.2 billion acquisition of professional services firm Quindell, to use in its defence of a class action over advice it gave on the troubled acquisition.
A court has upheld two decisions by the Australian Government Takeovers Panel that a bid by asset manager Aurora Funds Management to replace Molopo Energy’s directors was made in “unacceptable circumstances”.
Grain handling group Viterra has been denied a post-hearing bid to reopen a lawsuit brought by Cargill Australia over its $420 million acquisition of Joe White, with a judge finding the application would lead to “substantial disruption and delay”.
Seven West Media has filed a lawsuit against Bauer Media to compel the German company to complete its planned $40 million acquisition of the Australian media giant’s Pacific Magazines unit.
Sparke Helmore has admitted that legal advice it provided to IOOF subsidiary Australian Executor Trustees was inadequate but has argued it should be responsible only for up to 10 per cent of the $76.6 million judgment against AET over the sale of a timber plantation by collapsed forestry giant Gunns Group.
The competition watchdog has signed off on the $16 billion acquisition of Carlton & United Breweries by Asahi after the Japanese beer giant offered to shed key beer and cider brands to seal the deal.