ANZ Bank executives briefly considered relaunching and repricing a botched $2.5 billion equity capital raising at the heart of two groundbreaking enforcement actions, and the decision by the share placement’s underwriters to instead pick up a $790 million shortfall deprived investors of lower priced shares, a court has been told.
The trustee of the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust wants more details about an ecological landscaper’s allegation that it breached its duty of care by failing to make adequate disclosures about climate change risks.
Clayton Utz’s advice to the Department of Education that it could supply details to the ACCC about documents seized in an Australian Federal Police raid of Phoenix Institute of Australia’s offices was incorrect, the collapsed educational company told the court as it flagged a possible application to shut down the consumer watchdog’s case.
Kmart has been ordered to produce more documents related to changes made to the designs for its men’s cargo pants and shorts in a lawsuit alleging it violated the copyright for workwear company Globe International’s clothing designs.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, facing cross-claims by credit ratings agency Fitch in a class action alleging it gave false or misleading double A and triple A ratings to synthetic CDOs backed by Sigma Financial, told investors Fitch’s withdrawal of Sigma’s credit rating prior to the collapse of the $27 billion investment fund was a “technical” issue, the bank has admitted.
The Australian chapter of biker group the Hells Angels has mostly come up short in its wide-ranging intellectual property lawsuit against online marketplace Redbubble. But the judge that heard the case may have opened the door for more IP lawsuits against the print-on-demand site by shooting down its claims that its not a seller but merely a platform for artists and consumers to engage.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is facing claims by the lead applicants in two class actions against failed retail giant Dick Smith alleging its poor accounting practices contributed to the retailer’s collapse.
An appeals court has dashed the hopes of three group members of a resolved class action over managed investment schemes operated by agribusiness Great Southern Group who sought more time to appeal approval of the settlement deed, which put them on the hook for repaying their loans to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Global engineering firm CIMIC Group has been hit with costs after a last-minute subpoena of three new potential witnesses caused the three-week trial that was due to commence later this month to be vacated.
Westpac has followed ASIC’s lead, launching a separate appeal to a ruling that it provided financial advice but not personal advice as part of a campaign encouraging customers to roll over external superannuation accounts.