ANZ settles legal saga with the Oswals for at least $200m

ANZ has agreed to pay Pankaj and Radhika Oswal more than $200m to settle their legal saga.

‘Very satisfied’: Radhika and Pankaj Oswal. Picture: James Croucher

ANZ has agreed to pay Pankaj and Radhika Oswal more than $200 million to settle the flamboyant Indian business couple’s epic legal battle against the bank over its seizure and sale of their Burrup Fertiliser business.

The Oswals had been suing the bank and its receivers, PPB, for as much as $2.5 billion over ANZ’s seizure and sale of their majority stake in Burrup Fertilisers in 2010, during a dispute over $1bn the couple owed to the bank.

ANZ in turn sued the Oswals for allegedly misappropriating $150m from the company towards luxury cars, a boat, property ­including the couple’s as-yet-­unfinished Perth mansion and Mrs Oswal’s vegetarian restaurant chain, Otarian.

A spokesman for the couple said they were “very satisfied” with the deal.

“They are grateful that the Australian justice system allowed them to tell the Australian public what happened at Burrup before and after the receivership,” he said.

ANZ announced the deal in a statement to the ASX before the market opened that did not ­disclose the full extent of the settlement, which it said was “confidential”. However, the bank said the settlement would cost an additional $145m this year, on top of provisions already made.

In an email to staff, chief executive Shayne Elliott acknowledged the settlement was “not normal” for a bank that has “made it a point of principle to stand our ground in legal cases brought against us when we believe we are right and to accept the risk of losing.

“In the end, we took the view that in these quite unusual and complex circumstances the residual risks for ANZ were too great in the Oswal case,” he said.

“Given this, the size of the claim and the potential for court interest to apply, the amounts were so large that we felt we could not expose our shareholders to that risk.”

During the at-times torrid trial, the Oswals accused ANZ’s then-chief risk officer, Chris Page, of ­racism. Mrs Oswal also gave evidence on August 17 that ANZ general counsel Bob Santamaria pressured her to sign her interest in the business over to the bank, saying that if she did not, she and her husband would go to jail and their children would be “orphans”.

The case was adjourned following Mrs Oswal’s evidence and the parties entered mediation with a view to striking a deal.

Mr Elliott told employees “we completely reject the allegations made against our staff”.

“While embarrassing allegations are the inevitable rough and tumble of legal cases ... these, and the negative headlines associated with them, are no reason to ­consider settlements,” he said.

The Oswals’ spokesman said the couple found it “curious that the ANZ rejects all the allegations yet is prepared to pay a significant sum to stop them”.

Yesterday Victorian Supreme Court judge Julie Dodd-Streeton formally ended the case, which ran for 11 weeks, vacating the proceedings and ordering a refund of $6m the Oswals had provided as security for ANZ’s legal costs.

The Oswals have also settled a separate legal dispute with the Taxation Office, originally valued at $180m, that had stopped them leaving the country.

Their spokesman said they were now free to leave Australia.