Centro decision on hold for another day Carolyn CumminsDecember...

Centro decision on hold for another day



Carolyn Cummins
December 1, 2011 - 4:33PM .



Investors in Centro Properties must wait until 11am tomorrow morning to hear if the proposed aggregation plan of its trusts will occur after a court order stopped the process late today.

While Justice Barrett passed the scheme of arrangement earlier today, the lawyers for PwC immediately requested a stay of execution in order to read the judgment and determine if PWC wished to appeal.

After a two and a half hour session, Justice Barrett in the NSW Supreme Court agreed to a request from the defendant, PwC, to halt any action until 11am tomorrow.

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Centro’s lawyers argued that the merger scheme may fall over if the documents are not lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission by noon on Friday, December 12, as the plan needed to be in place before December 14, when the next round of debt needed to be repaid.

‘‘I direct that no office copies of the orders under Section 4 (11) (b) made today be lodged with ASIC before 11am tomorrow,’’ Justice Barrett said.

‘‘The embargo goes wholly to the matter of the lodgement with ASIC which this in statutory terms causes the orders to have legally meaningful consequences.’'