Brookfield's $97 Million Wembley Settlement Approved by Australian Court

Brookfield Multiplex Group’s A$110 million ($97 million) settlement with about 120 individual and institutional investors, who claimed they lost money because the company failed to disclose losses at London’s Wembley Stadium, was approved by the Federal Court of Australia.

Brookfield Multiplex, an Australian unit of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc., didn’t admit to any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the lawsuit, the company said in a statement today.

“This is a major win for the investors,” Andrew Watson, lawyer with Maurice Blackburn, who represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement on the firm’s Web site.

The settlement is the third to surpass the A$100 million level under Australia’s class-action regime and is about 20 times greater than the investors would have obtained under an offer Brookfield Multiplex made in 2007, Maurice Blackburn said in the statement.

The lawsuit was funded by Singapore-based International Litigation Funding Partners, Maurice Blackburn said.

The investors sued in 2006, claiming Brookfield Multiplex breached security disclosure requirements of the Australian Stock Exchange and the country’s Corporations Act by failing to disclose cost overruns and construction delays of the Wembley Stadium, the West India Quay and the Brisbane Airport heavy maintenance hangar, the lawfirm said.

Brookfield Multiplex shares slumped 58 percent from February 2, 2005 to May 31, 2005, as the cost overruns and delays were disclosed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Sydney at jschneider5@bloomberg.net

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