Herbert Smith Freehills

A judge has sentenced the former CEO of Bingo Industries to two years’ imprisonment to be served in the community and imposed $30 million in penalties against the waste company for a cartel arrangement with rival Aussie Skips, which copped fines of $3.5 million and an 18 month’ intensive corrections order for its boss. 

Beach Energy is fighting a bid to adjourn a fight about security for costs in a shareholder class action until the firm that’s running it has more favourable evidence of its debt financing position, saying the application is “doctrinally unprecedented.”

The ACCC’s rejection of a $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp was hardly surprising given the concentrated nature of the home loans market, but the competition regulator faced an uphill battle in having the decision upheld, an expert says.

The ACCC’s decision to block a $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp has been set aside, with a tribunal finding the transaction will not substantially lessen competition in the home loans market or for agribusiness and SME clients in Queensland. 

Shareholders of New Zealand construction giant Fletcher Building have told a court that late claims in their class action over alleged misleading 2017 profit forecasts are not time barred because knowledge of the allegations was not discoverable before the case was filed.

Queensland power company Stanwell has flagged a possible ‘no case to answer’ submission in an upcoming competition class action trial that would seek to shut the case down mid-trial, with a judge saying it was “highly unlikely” to succeed. 

Group members in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard will get 34 per cent of a $23 million settlement if the court approves deductions sought by the funder and law firm that ran the case.

It’s a case of déjà vu in a class action against engineering services company Worley, with shareholders heading back to the appeals court after losing a second trial in their drawn out fight over disclosure breaches.

A shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard over a profit downgrade following its $300 million initial public offering in 2015 has settled for $23 million. 

Construction giant Boral has lost its bid to block a class action from running a ‘novel’ argument that shareholders suffered loss because of natural fluctuations in share price, rather than as a direct result of alleged continuous disclosure breaches.