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Update Summary - July 2024

A settlement has been reached with AMP Limited in the AMP shareholder class action, for the sum of $110 million inclusive of costs.

On 14 November 2023, the Supreme Court of New South Wales approved the settlement and appointed Maurice Blackburn as Administrator of the Settlement Distribution Scheme.

On Thursday 22nd February 2024, Maurice Blackburn sent out communications to all registered group members which included a Trade Check Notice and Assessment Notice.

The Trade Check Notice contained the trade data upon which has been used to calculate group members estimated distribution. The Assessment Notice included an estimated distribution amount which is indicative only and the final distribution amount may vary from the estimate.

The time for amending your Trade Data or to seek a Review pursuant to these notices has since passed. 

Between 16 May 2024 and 17 July 2024, we have processed Final Distribution Amount payments to approximately 11,500 eligible registered group members who had provided bank account details by 24 May 2024. If you have been included in this cohort you would have received a remittance notice containing the Final Distribution Amount paid to the registered group member. 

The final deadline to provide bank account details was by 5pm AEST on Friday 21 June 2024.

For eligible registered group members who provided bank account details before the 21 June deadline, you will receive your Final Distribution Amount payment in late July 2024. You will receive a remittance notice containing the Final Distribution Amount paid to the registered group member. 

If you did not provide bank account details by the deadline, your Final Distribution Amount will be forfeited in accordance with the Settlement Distribution Scheme.

We ask that you wait to receive your remittance notice before contacting our team with any questions. 


Settlement Approval 

On 20 August 2023, the parties to the AMP shareholder class action reached an agreement to settle the class action for the sum of $110 million inclusive of costs.

On 14 November 2023, the Supreme Court of New South Wales approved the settlement of the AMP shareholder class action. The Court was satisfied that the settlement is fair and reasonable and in the interests of group members.

At the settlement approval hearing, the Court approved the Settlement Distribution Scheme (SDS) and appointed Maurice Blackburn as Administrator. The SDS sets out the settlement administration process, including how the settlement sum is to be distributed and the steps that need to happen before any money can be paid to group members.

Next Steps 

Registered group members were sent a Trade Check Notice and Assessment Notice on or around 22 February 2024.

The time for amending the Trade Data or to seek a Review pursuant to these notices has since passed.

Group members who are eligible to receive a distribution were required to provide their bank account details via Maurice Blackburn’s secure online portal. Failure to provide bank account details to Maurice Blackburn by 21 June 2024 will result in the forfeiture of your Final Distribution Amount.

Maurice Blackburn has undertaken the final loss calculations to determine the final distribution amounts payable to group members.

Payments are being made as expeditiously as possible in tranches.

Our current best estimate is that all eligible registered group members who provided bank account details will receive their Final Distribution Amount by the end of August 2024. 

Summary of Settlement Distribution Scheme

There are several key steps that need to take place before compensation can be paid to registered group members. These key steps are established in the SDS and can be summarised as follows:

Following settlement approval, the Administrator will undertake a detailed review and analysis of registered group members’ trade data, including the substantial data that was submitted before the registration deadline.

This includes resolving any identified discrepancies, verifying data as required and determining eligibility in the class action. During this phase the Administrator may contact some registered group members to resolve identified issues or advise of ineligible registrations.

Once all trade data has been verified the Administrator will undertake loss calculations in accordance with the terms of the SDS by applying the confidential loss assessment formula to the trade data of all registered group members.

After the loss calculations are complete a Trade Check Notice and Assessment Notice will be prepared for each registered group member.

The Trade Check Notice contains the trade data from each of the holding(s) that each group member registered to participate in the class action. This is the trade data that will be used to calculate each registered group members estimated distribution from the settlement distribution fund.

If the information contained in the Trade Check Notice is inaccurate, registered group members are required under the SDS to contact the Administrator to correct any error by a specified deadline.

The Assessment Notice contains an estimate of the amounts that will be distributed to registered group members under the settlement of the class action. The estimate is indicative only and the final amount distributed to registered group members may vary from the estimate provided in the Assessment Notice, including because of any review requests received by the Administrator in accordance with the SDS.

The Assessment Notice includes provisions for registered group members to request a review if they consider that an error has been made in calculating the estimated distribution amounts included in the Assessment Notice, or if an error or omission in the trade data from the Trade Check Notice is identified. The Assessment Notice will outline the review process and will provide a specified deadline for reviews to be received by the Administrator.

Once the notices have been prepared, each registered group member will be sent via email a Trade Check Notice, an Assessment Notice, and a link to provide bank account details via a secure online portal (where the estimated distribution is greater than $0).

Payments of distributions will be made by Electronic Funders Transfer. To receive payment, each registered group member will be required to provide their bank account details via Maurice Blackburn’s secure online portal, which includes a two-step verification process.

The Administrator is unable to accept bank account details by email and failure to provide bank account details via the secure online portal by the specified timeframe will result in forfeiture of distribution amounts.

Once bank account details are received, the Administrator will undertake a number of steps to prepare for processing the payments. Once these are complete, the Administrator will process distribution payments in tranches.

At this stage, most eligible registered group members have received compensation. Once a registered group member’s payment is processed, they will be sent a remittance notice which will provide the final distribution amount paid to the registered group member.

We anticipate all Final Distribution Amounts will have been paid to eligible registered group members by late August 2024.

After all Final Distribution Amounts have been paid to eligible registered group members, if there is a Remaining Balance in the Settlement Distribution Fund, the Administrator will deal with the Remaining Balance in accordance with the SDS. 

Throughout the settlement administration, the Administrator will also manage all group member enquiries, which are likely to be significant given the large number of registered group members.

If you would like to receive a copy of the SDS or the confidential Loss Assessment Formula please contact us via email at AMPclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au.

Registrations now closed 

Registrations for the AMP shareholder class action have now closed in accordance with the Court ordered registration deadline of 4.00 pm (AEDT), 3 November 2023. Group members who registered for the AMP shareholder class action before that time will be contacted in due course by Maurice Blackburn. Group members who did not register for the AMP shareholder class action before that time are (subject to any contrary orders of the Court) ineligible to receive a payment from the settlement sum.

Have further questions? 

If you have any further questions regarding the settlement, please contact us at AMPclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au
 



Key documents

Contact the team

Call: 1800 931 524

Email: AMPclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au

Frequently asked questions

A class action is a legal action that is brought by one or more persons (the plaintiffs) on their own behalf and on behalf of a group of persons (group members) against another person or persons (defendant), where the plaintiffs and the group members all have similar claims against the defendant. The plaintiffs in the AMP shareholder class action are Komlotex Pty Limited and Fernbrook (Aust) Investments Pty Limited. 

The plaintiffs in a class action do not need to seek the consent of group members to commence a class action on their behalf, or to identify a specific group member or members. However, group members can cease to be group members by ‘opting out’ of the class action before a Court-imposed deadline. An explanation of how group members could opt out was contained in a previous notice to group members and the deadline for opting out has now passed. 

From 16 April 2018, AMP was the subject of examination by the Financial Services Royal Commission. During the course of this, two significant revelations of misconduct by AMP were the focus:

  1. For a number of years, AMP had knowingly been charging clients ongoing fees for no service in various contexts.
  2. AMP misled ASIC on repeated occasions when reporting to ASIC regarding its charging of fees for no service.

Since these revelations, the fallout for AMP has been considerable. The market strongly reacted and by the first week, AMP’s share price had fallen by around 11%. Both Catherine Brenner (ex-Chairman) and Craig Meller (ex-CEO) resigned from their positions and two other directors stood down.

Maurice Blackburn commenced a class action against AMP, on behalf of shareholders in AMP, for its failure to disclose the market sensitive information above to the ASX. This is alleged to amount to misleading and deceptive conduct and a breach of its continuous disclosure obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the ASX Listing Rules.

For more information about the claim, read the Plaintiffs’ 'Further Amended Commercial List Statement’. 

No, registrations are now closed. On 27 September 2023, Justice Ball of the Supreme Court of New South Wales made orders which required all group members who wished to participate in the class action settlement to register by 4pm (AEDT) on 3 November 2023. 

Only group members who registered to participate before 4pm (AEDT) on 3 November 2023 are eligible to participate in the settlement.

Group members in the AMP shareholder class action are all persons who acquired an interest in AMP securities during the Relevant Period (10 May 2012 to 13 April 2018), other than certain persons related to or associated with AMP, and judges of Courts involved (or potentially involved) in the class action.

You may be a group member if you entered into a contract to acquire an interest in:

(a) fully paid ordinary shares in AMP during the period 10 May 2012 to 13 April 2018 (inclusive), including by way of dividend reinvestment; and/or

(b) American Depository Receipts representing AMP Shares between 7 June 2012 and 13 April 2018 (inclusive).

At the settlement approval hearing, Maurice Blackburn asked the Court to approve its legal costs which include fees for the work done by solicitors and disbursements (including fees for barristers, experts and court fees). The Court could only approve an amount of legal costs which it considered to be fair and reasonable, and in making that decision it took into account the opinion of an expert costs assessor.

The Court approved costs of $26.2 million up to the settlement approval hearing on 14 November 2023. These costs were incurred over more than five years and include the costs of investigating and preparing the matter for trial, and numerous pre-trial hearings, including appeals to the NSW Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia. The Court approved a further $1.13 million for settlement administration costs. 

At the settlement approval hearing, the Court ordered that the reasonable legal costs of conducting the class action be deducted from the settlement sum, before calculating each group member’s entitlement.

This means that, if you are eligible to participate as a group member in the distribution of the settlement sum, your share of the settlement will be calculated and paid to you after deduction of any legal costs. 

Under no circumstances will you be liable to pay any ‘out-of-pocket’ costs to Maurice Blackburn.

By the registration deadline of 4pm (AEDT) on 3 November 2023, approximately 18,000 group members had registered to participate in the settlement.

The SDS establishes a procedure for distributing the settlement sum, including the payment of final distribution amounts to registered group members.

The SDS includes the confidential Loss Assessment Formula which details how each registered group member’s entitlement to a share of the settlement sum will be calculated.

To access the SDS and/or the confidential Loss Assessment Formula please contact us directly via email at AMPclassaction@mauriceblackburn.com.au.

The SDS includes a confidential Loss Assessment Formula which details how each registered group member’s entitlement to a share of the settlement sum has been calculated.

All trade data has now been verified and loss calculations have been undertaken in accordance with the terms of the SDS by applying the confidential Loss Assessment Formula to the trade data of all registered group members.

Group members have been provided with an estimated distribution amount in their Assessment Notice.

Remember, the estimate calculated is indicative only and the final amount distributed to registered group members may vary from the estimate provided in the Assessment Notice, including because of any review requests received by the Administrator in accordance with the SDS.

Registered group members were provided with an estimated distribution amount in their Assessment Notice sent on 22 February 2024.

The estimate calculated was indicative only and the final amount distributed to registered group members may have varied from the estimate provided in the Assessment Notice, including because of any review requests received by the Administrator in accordance with the SDS.

Most eligible registered group members have now received compensation. We estimate that all Final Distribution Amounts will have been paid to eligible registered group members by late August 2024.

Once a registered group members payment is processed, they will be sent a remittance notice which will provide the final distribution amount paid to the registered group member.

To be eligible for the AMP shareholder class action, group members must have entered into a contract to acquire an interest in AMP securities during the Relevant period (10 May 2012 to 13 April 2018) or in American Depository Receipts between 7 June 2012 and 13 April 2018.

Noting these eligibility requirements, you will be issued with an Assessment Notice with a $0 distribution value where you:

  • have only held shares within the Relevant Period, without any acquisitions being made; or
  • have only disposed (sold) of shares within the Relevant Period, without any acquisitions being made; or
  • have acquired shares within the period and then subsequently sold that parcel of shares prior to 13 April 2018. This has the effect of balancing out the inflated price you purchased the shares at.

To acquire a share means the purchase of new shares for value, or via dividend reinvestment during the Relevant Period.

The deadline to amend your Trade Data, or to seek a Review of your estimated distribution, has now passed.

Payments of distributions will be made by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). To receive payment, each eligible registered group member must register the details of a single bank account via Maurice Blackburn’s secure online portal, which includes a two-step verification process.

The final deadline to provide bank account details was by 5pm AEST on Friday 21 June 2024. Registered group members who did not provide bank account details will now have their Final Distribution Amount forfeited in accordance with the SDS.

Most eligible registered group members have now received compensation. We estimate that all Final Distribution Amounts will have been paid to eligible registered group members by late August 2024.

Once a registered group members payment is processed, they will be sent a remittance notice which will provide the final distribution amount paid to the registered group member.

We will continue to update our website as the settlement administration progresses and if this timeframe changes.

The interest earned on the settlement sum has been distributed in accordance with the SDS, including to offset Administration Costs. 

If you are receiving a distribution and  have successfully provided your bank account details to Maurice Blackburn via the secure online platform, there is nothing more that we need from you.

Once a registered group members payment is processed, they will be sent a remittance notice which will provide the final distribution amount paid to the registered group member.

We will continue to update our website as the settlement administration progresses and if this timeframe changes.

Australian leaders in class actions.

Our reputation for excellence in class actions is unparalleled, having recovered more than $4.3 billion for clients.

We are the only Australian class actions firm to deliver $100m+ settlements to clients in shareholder and listed securities actions, which we have done on ten occasions.  

Lower cost to clients

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Australian leaders in class actions.

Our reputation for excellence in class actions is unparalleled, having recovered more than $4.3 billion for clients.

We are the only Australian class actions firm to deliver $100m+ settlements to clients in shareholder and listed securities actions, which we have done on ten occasions.  

Lower cost to clients

Biggest recoveries

Most experienced

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