Legal firm Macpherson + Kelley (M+K) has filed a number of new class actions on behalf of investors caught in the collapse of agribusiness firm Great Southern.
The Melbourne-based firm has filed a “series of class actions” in the past week, a statement from M+K said.
The largest case involves the 2008 Renewable Fibre Project which raised $108 million, the statement said.
“Loans made to investors in that project by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank through Great Southern are being challenged as to their validity,” it said.
“Damages are also being claimed by investors.”
The new cases are expected to progress alongside the lead case concerning the 2005 and 2006 Plantation Projects.
“That case withstood attack an, last March was given the go-ahead by Justice Clyde Croft in the Victorian Supreme Court, clearing the way for related cases to be brought in respect of every Great Southern agribusiness project sold to investors through 2005 to 2009,” the statement said.
In March this year, Justice Croft said investors in the 2005 and 2006 Great Southern plantation schemes had earned the right to move ahead with their claims under various provisions of the Corporations Act and the ASIC Act.
Great Southern’s sales revenue from just the 2005 plantation scheme alone was $241 million in its financial year ended 30 September 2005, M+K said at the time.
In December last year, M+K was ordered to pass on an amended statement of claim to legal representatives of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank after the banking group was successful in striking out select information in the litigator’s statement of claim.
