McCallum, in the Matter of Re Holdco Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) (No 2)

The case concerns the sale of the assets of the Sargon Group, a corporate group consisting of approximately 39 companies engaged in financial planning, corporate trustee, responsible entity, superannuation and related financial services businesses. The assets of the Sargon Group were sold by a number of the Intermediate Holding Companies to Pacific Infrastructure Services Pty Ltd and Pacific Infrastructure Holdings Pty Ltd as part of a complete sale of the business to the Cloverhill Group (the Cloverhill Sale). The parties to the proceeding are seven active parties: the Administrators, Westpac Banking Corporation, Sargon Capital, Taiping Trustees Limited, GrowthOps Services Pty Ltd, Diversa Pty Ltd and OneVue Holdings Limited. The legal issues that the court had to decide included whether unaccepted offers to purchase an asset are admissible as direct evidence of market value of that asset, whether the proceeds of the sale of the assets of the Sargon Group should be distributed among the parties according to their claims, and whether the claims of the parties to the proceeds of sale were valid. The court found that unaccepted offers to purchase an asset are not admissible as direct evidence of market value of that asset, but may be considered as part of a broader analysis of market value. The court also found that the Administrators were entitled to their costs out of the retained proceeds of sale, and that the claims of the parties to the proceeds of sale were valid to the extent determined in the accompanying reasons of the Court. The court made orders that the claim made by the plaintiffs in respect of items 11 and 12 of the plaintiffs' amended notice of claim is dismissed, the claim made by the first interested party (Westpac) in the proceeding is upheld to the extent determined in the accompanying reasons of the Court, and the claims made by the fourth interested party (GrowthOps) and the fifth and sixth interested parties (Diversa and OneVue) in the proceeding are dismissed.