It has been reported that the $200 million Centro class action settlement reached in early May was approved this morning by Middleton J of the Federal Court of Australia. None of the shareholders participating in the class action objected to the settlement. The judgment is not up on Austlii yet, but you can read the full article on the Age website here.

It is reported that of the $200 million, $67 million will be paid by former auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, with the balance to be paid by Centro-related companies. After legal costs and after the commission to litigation funders, it is said that shareholders are likely to share in a pool of just over $120 million.

You can read my earlier post of 8 May about the settlement reached here, my post of 17 April about some developments in the case which took place that day here, and my post of 27 February giving a brief background of the case and reporting on developments and an interesting Centro decision on the question of legal professional privilege here.