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AACo in bid to halt sale of Stanbroke
19 Sep 2003
Australian Agricultural Company has launched legal action to halt the $490 million sale of Stanbroke Pastoral. AACo, which was unsuccessful in the tender, alleges that AMP Henderson and AMP Life engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct during the sale.
AACo claims it offered more than the winning bidder, the Nebo syndicate, in the three stages of the sale. AACo also claims it was not given access to the same information about the bidding process for the Stanbroke properties, managed by AMP Henderson on behalf of policyholders in AMP Life's No. 1 fund.
On Tuesday last week AMP announced the sale of Stanbroke's 11.7 million hectares in western Queensland and the Northern Territory to the Nebo syndicate for $490 million. But according to documents lodged yesterday in the Federal Court, AACo had offered $541 million (including debt) for Stanbroke on September 8.
AACo claims AMP sold Stanbroke to Nebo because Nebo agreed to keep Stanbroke as a separate entity. AACo says this condition was "irrelevant" to AMP's duty of maximising return to policyholders, and anyway, says it was not told of this condition and would have agreed to it had it been aware it was important to the vendor.
The Age, 19/9/03.
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