Daniel Farinha

Arrium's former directors and auditor KPMG have lost a challenge to a key report relied on by shareholders in a class action over the collapsed steelmaker that says the company overstated the value of its assets.

A mid-trial amendment bid by shareholders in a class action over Arrium's collapse will delay cross-examination of the company's CEO and former directors, who told a judge Wednesday they should not be required to enter the witness box until the issue is resolved.

A class action over the collapse of Arrium is bound to its pleading that the asset value of all the steelmaker's business units was impaired by a total of $2.8 billion, a judge has ruled in the second week of trial.

A mid-trial fight has erupted in a class action over the collapse of steelmaker Arrium, with the company's auditor and directors saying the case had swerved, and the plaintiff accusing the respondents of "playing games".

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.

As proof of its popularity as a class action jurisdiction, the Supreme Court of Victoria will hear opening submissions in three class action trials on Monday, an unprecedented number in a single day for the court.

A judge has allowed a 50 per cent fee uplift for counsel in an epic fight over lucrative tenements in the Pilbara region, but says the hourly fees of solicitors from the likes of Allens, Clayton Utz and Corrs were already well above market rate.