ANZ settles with Primebroker Securities
21 November 2011 Sydney
Image: Shutterstock
ANZ has agreed to pay $20.5 million cash to the liquidator of failed broking house, Primebroker Securities, reports Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).
The settlement puts a stop to a "torturous and fiercely expensive" series of six concurrent Victorian Supreme Court legal cases that threatened to drag on until at least February.
Principals of Primebroker Securities, Sal Catalano and Ian Pattison, accused the bank of misleading and deceptive conduct when ANZ, their securities lending counterparty, and its agent led them to believe that Primebroker would be supported with an investment of $55 million that never materialised.
SMH reports that as part of the deal, ANZ will release numerous properties owned by the the pair, but which the bank had claimed as security and in addition will not claim in the insolvency for the estimated $150 million it says it was owed when Primebroker collapsed in July 2008. It will allow the receivers it appointed, PwC, to hand the liquidator their book of Primebroker's receivables, which could generate another $20 million.
Primebroker's liquidator, Laurie Fitzgerald of BDO, yesterday told media it was too early to know exactly how much would be distributed to client-creditors, who are owed about $90 million.
ANZ has not made any admission of liability, reports SMH.
The settlement puts a stop to a "torturous and fiercely expensive" series of six concurrent Victorian Supreme Court legal cases that threatened to drag on until at least February.
Principals of Primebroker Securities, Sal Catalano and Ian Pattison, accused the bank of misleading and deceptive conduct when ANZ, their securities lending counterparty, and its agent led them to believe that Primebroker would be supported with an investment of $55 million that never materialised.
SMH reports that as part of the deal, ANZ will release numerous properties owned by the the pair, but which the bank had claimed as security and in addition will not claim in the insolvency for the estimated $150 million it says it was owed when Primebroker collapsed in July 2008. It will allow the receivers it appointed, PwC, to hand the liquidator their book of Primebroker's receivables, which could generate another $20 million.
Primebroker's liquidator, Laurie Fitzgerald of BDO, yesterday told media it was too early to know exactly how much would be distributed to client-creditors, who are owed about $90 million.
ANZ has not made any admission of liability, reports SMH.
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