Cromwell Corporation Limited have brought an application in the Federal Court of Australia seeking preliminary discovery from ARA and Mr Gordon Tang and associated entities.
Cromwell believes that an unlawful ‘association’ within the meaning and for the purposes of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) may have been established between ARA and the Tang Group and is hoping that preliminary discovery of certain documents created between 1 July 2017 and 22 June 2020 may reveal relevant matters.
ARA has previously denied any links to Tang in relation to their dealings in Cromwell, however the Tang family are not unknown to ARA. The Tang family are estimated to be worth approx $1.9bn and are reported to control a vast array of investments. Among the biggest is a $S800 million ($825 million) stake in the Singapore-listed Suntec REIT, which is managed by ARA. The Tang family-controlled SGX-listed property investment group SingHaiyi, also invests in ARA's Harmony Fund III, while other family interests are invested in ARA's US Hospitality Trust.
The Tangs entered the Cromwell register in December 2017 with an 8.8% stake and have since increased their interests to approx 13%.
In December 2019, Cromwell attempted to have the Takeovers Panel declare that ARA and the Tangs were acting together, effectively controlling a 37.4% combined stake in the company but not declaring a takeover offer as is required under Australian laws. The Takeover panel refused to hear the case, throwing it out for a lack of evidence.
The latest move by Cromwell is an attempt to gain that evidence.
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