Collapsed Melbourne developer Steller has failed to convince a court that its founders and two former directors owe $101.9 million, with a judge rejecting claims that they personally guaranteed the company’s debt.
Former directors of Steller Developments have told a court they did not intend to guarantee the company’s debt in the event of bankruptcy, as trial kicked off in proceedings by the collapsed Melbourne developer’s liquidators.
A Sleeping Duck shareholder has been ordered to pay the company’s costs on an indemnity basis in its failed oppression suit, with a judge finding that its decisions to reject Sleeping Duck’s buy-out offers of roughly $4 million were unreasonable.
Sleeping Duck has defeated a minority shareholder’s case accusing it of engaging in oppression, with a judge rejecting claims the mattress company’s two founders diluted the shareholder’s interest and rejected commercially unreasonable offers to sell.
A former director of Melbourne-based developer Steller Developments has denied liquidators’ claims that he agreed to give a $120 million personal guarantee before the company went under, saying there was “not one single contemporaneous document” referring to the alleged guarantee.