Ardent Leisure Group Class Action

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Settlement

The Ardent Leisure class action was in relation to ordinary shares acquired between 17 June 2014 and 25 October 2016.

On 23 August 2023, the parties to this class action reached agreement to settle the proceeding.  The settlement is for a lump sum payment of $26 million (including interest and costs, without admission of liability) and is required to be approved by the Federal Court of Australia.

The hearing to approve the settlement will occur at 10:15am AEST on 30 November 2023.  At this hearing, the judge will decide whether the settlement is fair and reasonable and is in the interest of Group Members.

The settlement approval

The Federal Court of Australia will need to approve deductions from the settlement sum for legal fees, litigation funding and expenses, insurance and administration costs of distributing the settlement sum to eligible Group Members.

The remainder of the settlement sum will be distributed to eligible Group Members.  This means that eligible Group Members will not receive the full value of their claims under the settlement, as a compromise was required to take into account the risks involved with running the class action, as well as the benefit to group members in receiving the money now, rather than later.

As a Group Member, you have rights.  A notice approved by the Federal Court of Australia, which explains some things about the settlement, the deductions proposed from the settlement sum and your rights can be found here.  You can also send any queries that you have to [email protected].

If you support the proposed settlement, you do not need to do anything.

If you disagree with the proposed settlement (or any aspect of how it is proposed to be distributed, including the treatment of unregistered group members), please read this document. However, the deadline for the Notice of Objection was 4pm AEST on 16 November 2023 which has now passed.

Registration

It is proposed that the settlement of the Ardent class action will only be distributed to group members who registered with Piper Alderman by 20 March 2023, being the deadline advised to group members in a notice issued in early 2023.  A limited number of group members who registered late, but before the settlement was achieved on 23 August 2023 are also proposed to be included in distribution of the settlement.

It is proposed that Group Members who did not register with Piper Alderman by 20 March 2023 (extended to 23 August 2023) will have to make an application to the court to explain why they should be allowed to participate in the settlement.

As such, if you think you should be allowed to register late you should take steps to tell the Court by 16 November 2023.

For any enquiries, please contact Piper Alderman on (07) 3220 7777 or at [email protected].

Relevant documents

For any enquiries, please contact [email protected].