(Reuters) – Australia’s ANZ Group said on Thursday it had appealed against a Federal Court decision that found the lender guilty of not disclosing that its underwriters had bought nearly one-third of a share issue worth A$2.5 billion ($1.68 billion) in 2015.
The Federal Court in October found the country’s third-largest bank guilty of breaking disclosure laws by failing to notify the market that between A$754 million and A$791 million of the shares were acquired by its underwriters instead of being placed with investors.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission in September 2018 sued ANZ over the issue, while the competition regulator in June 2018 filed criminal cartel charges against the lender and its two investment banks, Citigroup Inc and Deutsche Bank AG.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, however, withdrew its lawsuit in February 2022, citing there was “no longer reasonable prospects of conviction”.
A civil penalty of A$900,000 was also levied against ANZ as a result of the court decision in October.
ANZ said on Thursday it does not intend to provide any further comment at this time.
($1 = 1.4901 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Subhranshu Sahu)
