Allco shareholder class action

View the settlement approval judgment.

The settlement will be distributed to group members in accordance with a Settlement Distribution Scheme (SDS) approved by the Court. Maurice Blackburn has been appointed as the Administrator of the SDS.

Please note that the settlement approval judgment and the SDS provides that, in order to participate in the settlement distribution, Unregistered Group Members must have registered their claim with Maurice Blackburn by noon on 31 March 2017. Registrations received after this time will not be eligible to participate.

At this stage, there is nothing that group members need to do.

Overview of Settlement Administration

The settlement administration process will broadly include the following steps:

1. Confirmation of details and claim data

Each Registrant will be issued and sent a Notice of Claim Data, which will list all claim data pertaining to the Registrant as recorded in the Claim Database.

The Notice provides Registrants with an opportunity to update, amend or confirm their claim data by completing an enclosed Participant Declaration.

Registrants are required by the SDS to validly complete and return the Notice(s) and Participant Declaration within 21 days. We will then calculate the Assessment for each Participant based on the registered Trade Data.

2. Notice of Estimated Distribution

The Administrator will then send a Notice of Estimated Distribution to each Participant, detailing:

• the Trade Data relating to their claim
• the Administrator’s reasonable estimate of the Participant’s expected distribution under the SDS
• their rights to review under the SDS

Participants will have a 14 day period within which they may request a Review of the Notice of Estimated Distribution. If a review is not requested within this time, the Participant will be taken to have accepted the Notice.

3. Distribution of funds to group members

After Participants’ review periods have expired, and any Reviews requested by Participants have been completed, Maurice Blackburn will distribute the assessed allocations of the Settlement Sum to Participants as expeditiously as possible.

Background of the Class Action

The Allco Class Action was commenced in the Federal Court on the 8th of August 2013 against Allco Finance Group and KPMG. The action arose out of a claim that the respondents contravened the requirements of the Corporations Act 2001, or otherwise made misleading statements, leading to financial loss to persons who acquired shares in the period from 21 August 2007 to 10 February 2008.

The parties to the Allco Class Action have agreed on terms for the settlement of the proceeding, which were not concluded until the Court approved the settlement on 31 March 2017. Under the terms of the proposed settlement the respondents are to pay:

• $30 million to settle the claims of Registered Group Members; and
• a further amount of $10 million to settle the claims of any other Unregistered Group Members.