A $25 million settlement has been reached in three long-running shareholder class actions over the collapse of electronics retailer Dick Smith, under which the funders that backed the litigation will not recover their costs and shareholders recoveries will be small.
A unit of Standard Chartered Bank has prevailed in a securities spat with Energy World Corporation, which has been ordered to approve a $64.4 million note transfer and pay $42.2 million to the Singapore-based bank.
Trial is set to begin February 2 in a $100 million shareholder class action against Woolworths over a February 2015 profit downgrade that allegedly led to a drop in the company’s share price.
The daughter of property data pioneer Ray Catelan has won a legal fight with Excelsior shareholders over claims she acquired a controlling share of the real estate private equity firm while in possession of inside information that caused a dramatic spike in the company’s share price after it went public.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
Last-mile logistics software company GetSwift has ceased trading on the ASX after its relocation to Canada got the greenlight by the Federal Court and FIRB despite the company facing ongoing litigation in Australia.
Shareholders of collapsed vocational training company Vocation are poised to get about half of a $50 million settlement reached last month in a complex, long-running class action alleging the company failed to make adequate disclosures about its contracts with the Victorian Department of Education.
The Full Federal Court has tossed an appeal by Treasury Wine Estates claiming that Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan breached their obligations in preparing the pleadings in a current shareholder class action against the global winemaker.
Three days after launching a class action against Crown Resorts over potential anti-money laundering breaches revealed at a NSW gaming authority inquiry, Maurice Blackburn has said it will amend the pleadings in a separate shareholder class action against the casino giant using findings from the inquiry’s final report.
A Federal Court judge taking over a shareholder class action against IOOF Holdings from a recent High Court appointment has lamented the lack of progress in the case, which has been ongoing for nine months.