Press Releases and Announcements - 27 June 2011
Maurice Blackburn lawyers has welcomed
a Federal Court decision today confirming that Centro Directors had
breached their duties when they approved financial statements for
2006-7.
Martin Hyde, senior associate and
lawyer running the class action on behalf of Centro investors,
said:
"The Federal Court decision reinforces
the class action case. The judge has held that the directors and
senior executives knew that Centro had billions of dollars in debt
that was due to mature at the same time they authorised the release
of the company accounts which failed to reveal the maturing
debt."
In 2008, Maurice Blackburn issued
Federal Court proceedings on behalf of disgruntled shareholders,
alleging that Centro Properties Group and its listed affiliate
Centro Retail Group engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and
breached their continuous disclosure obligations in the reporting
of their June 2007 accounts.
When the two companies eventually
revealed the true extent of their maturing debts in December 2007,
their share prices plummeted.
The group members in the Maurice
Blackburn Centro class actions, who comprise a broad range of
investors, from individuals to the largest financial institutions
in Australia, are seeking damages worth several hundred million
dollars from Centro and from Centro's auditors
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Further background
click here.