The Supreme Court of Victoria has approved Treasury Wine Estates’ shareholder class action settlement, which had been announced in October last year. The proceeding was a consolidation of two class actions instigated in April and May 2020.
TWE said the $65 million settlement was inclusive of interest and costs and would be covered by insurance. As part of the settlement terms, TWE made no admission of liability and said it was a commercial decision.
The class actions were launched after the company downgraded its forecast earnings, which wiped $3 billion from its market capitalisation.
It revised its FY20 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) forecast from 15-20 per cent to 5-10 per cent, following its US business reporting a 17 per cent decline in earnings for 1H20.
CEO at the time, Michael Clarke, said, “The early announcement of our first half results, which remain subject to audit review, reflects the fact that we slightly missed our 1H20 EBITS versus our own expectations and based on our revised full year forecast our growth rate in F20 will be lower than previously guided.”
