The Australian Competition Tribunal has given competition approval for the $11bn merger of Tabcorp and Tatts. Although the Tribunal was the first instance decision maker in this case, under...
A new law will permit liquidators to more confidently make decisions about whether or not to pursue insurers directly without the worry of speculating as to whether there are other competing claims...
Two recent decisions of FWC mean that employers, particularly in the retail and hospitality industries, should confirm their minimum rate obligations to employees.
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Mighty River International Ltd v Hughes & Bredenkamp [2017] WASC 69 (Mighty River v Hughes) has confirmed the legality and the...
Receivers may breach their duty of care if they sell property over which they are appointed without first conducting a marketing campaign or running a public auction.
It is not uncommon for administrators to be appointed in the period between a company being served with a creditor’s winding up application and the date on which that application is to be heard...
As highlighted by a recent Full Bench decision of the WA AIRC (Spotless Group v Dennis Buckle [2017] WAIRC 00024), tribunals are prepared to refer to the National Employment Standards to resolve...
The factors which an administrator can cite in support of any extension application will necessarily depend upon the unique factual circumstances involved.
A decision by the Full Federal Court supports the Australian Competition Tribunal’s February 2016 findings: that there may be a different benchmark efficient entity for each service provider, and...
On 14 March 2017, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW gave its decision in People for the Plains Incorporated v Santos NSW (Eastern) Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 46 (Case). The Case considered...
All companies, however large or small, will need to comply with these proposed laws when (rather than if) they are enacted.
Important developments in Australia and overseas in foreign bribery policy, investigations and regulation to 20 May 2016, including international the role of intermediaries in Unaoil and the Panama...
In certain circumstances, knowledge of fraud by employees may be aggregated to determine culpability of a company where there is a duty and opportunity to communicate it to the other.
Insolvency practitioners will need to consider whether a lease is entered into before or after the commencement of the Amending Act, as this will determine which set of rules apply.
"Justice Black in In the matter of Boart Longyear Limited [2017] NSWSC 537 has confirmed that section 411(16) of the Corporations Act 2011 (Cth) (the Act), can be used to provide companies...
In February 2017, the Australian Government released a consultation paper titled ‘Increasing Transparency of the Beneficial Ownership of Companies’ (Consultation Paper) to explore the potential to...
As part of a wider effort to combat corporate tax avoidance and improve the transparency of multinational companies’ financial affairs, in late 2015 the Australian Parliament amended existing...
Shareholder class actions for alleged breaches of a listed company’s continuous disclosure obligations are an established part of the Australian legal landscape with more than 50 shareholder class...
The New South Wales Supreme Court has found that a secured party can't rely on its own mistake when registering on the PPSR to claim that the defective registration “temporarily perfects” its...
Foreign financial service providers (FFSPs), that provide financial services to wholesale clients in Australia relying on one of the FFSP Class Order exemptions from holding an Australian financial...
This special edition of Acumen discusses the key taxation reforms for business announced on the evening of 9 May 2017 by Treasurer Scott Morrison in the 2017 Australian Federal Budget.
At the conclusion of the 2016 AGM season, we conducted our annual survey of remuneration report voting for S&P/ASX 1001entities.
The decision of Jackson J has wide-ranging consequences for the insolvency industry, as the outcome effectively relegates (at least in QLD) liquidator remuneration, employee entitlements and all...
Section 433 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Act) concerns the payment to employees as priority creditors by a receiver from the assets subject to a circulating security interest. This...