Agriculture

Murray Goulburn has agreed to pay $37.5 million to resolve the second of two shareholder class actions over its 2016 profit forecasts, as the $42 million settlement of the first class action is held up over questions about the litigation funder’s commission. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has extended its review of ANZ Terminals’ proposed acquisition of a unit of global agribusiness GrainCorp, after expressed competition concerns about the $350 million tie-up in July.

Quintis founder Frank Wilson has won his bid for unredacted transcripts of ASIC examinations with six former directors of the failed sandalwood company.

A judge’s decision refusing to approve a $42 million settlement in a shareholder class action against Murray Goulburn because of a “too high” funder’s commission has set the stage for a showdown over the power of courts to alter funding agreements, a battle potentially more consequential than the fight over common fund orders now before the High Court.

A judge has briefly stayed his $76.6 million judgment against IOOF subsidiary Australian Executor Trustees over the sale of a timber plantation by the collapsed Gunns Group as AET weighs an appeal of the ruling, which dismissed its cross-claim against law firm Sparke Helmore.

Activist US short seller Bonitas Research is refusing to participate in legal action brought in Australia by Rural Funds Group, as it continues to press allegations of fraud, which sent the agricultural fund manager’s share price plummeting.

The a2 Milk Company has come up short again in opposing a competitor’s bid to register a trade mark containing “a2”, with a delegate finding the reputation of its goods does not lie in the descriptive term a2 alone.

A judge has refused to sign off on a $42 million settlement of a class action against dairy giant Murray Goulburn, saying the commission sought by the funder appeared out of proportion to the risk and above the going rate.

Hong Kong-based UDP was entitled to $25 million from its insurers after losing more than $30 million from its disastrous acquisition of dairy conglomerate 5 Star Foods, which had been secretly overcharging one of its biggest customers, food giant Lion Nathan Group.

The plaintiffs in a farming class action brought against Advanta Seeds over allegedly contaminated sorghum have been denied access to the defendant’s insurance policy documents, after a judge found “significant differences” with a recently successful application in a class action against Radio Rentals.