Australia

Failed agribusiness Timbercorp's former directors must today face a class-action suit filed against them in 2009 by more than 2000 investors in the Supreme Court, the Financial Standard reported. The investors have made allegations of conflicts of interest, breaches of directors' duties, misleading conduct and other violations of the Corporations Act following the collapse of the company which went into voluntary administration in 2009 with a net debt of more than $900 million.

In a blow to the Australian banking industry, ratings firm Moody's Investors Service downgraded the debt ratings of the country's four largest banks, citing their dependence on global lending markets, The Australian reported. A downgrade to Aa2 from their previous investment grade rating of Aa1 - one notch below Moody's top rating - will likely increase their costs even as worries grow that Australia's rising interest rates will crimp profitability. The four banks - ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and National Australia Bank - dominate lending in Australia.

One of Australia's biggest fertiliser importers and sellers has become the latest company to go into administration after Switzerland's Western Gulf Advisory failed to deliver on financing, The Australian reported. WGA, which has been accused of taking millions of dollars from Australian companies in upfront fees for loans, is understood to have committed late last year to provide loans to the Interfert and Megafert fertiliser companies owned by South Australian businessmen Peter Evans and John Simper.

Menswear retail chain Ed Harry has been sold to a management buyout group led by the company's chief executive and chief financial officer, just three months after the company fell into voluntary administration due to the precarious retail industry, SmartCompany.com.au reported. The new management team have said they will acquire 78 profitable stores out of a total of 130 locations – for an undisclosed price – and will focus on a new strategy for the entire business.

CEC Group and its employees will have a clearer picture of their futures today when management meets administrators to discuss the way forward for one of the company's main businesses, Cairns.com.au reported. CEC Constructions Ltd was placed into voluntary administration on Friday in what chief executive officer Roy Lavis said was part of the group’s survival plan as it struggles with debts of about $90 million. Mr Lavis said it was hoped the company would be bought by the workers in a plan aimed to protect the group, finance companies, staff, directors, creditors and shareholders.

Arafura Pearls Holdings has been placed into voluntary administration by its directors with more than $40 million owed to creditors, NT News reported. The Perth-based company is a ASX-listed pearl farming and managed investments company. KordaMentha partners Stephen Duncan and Chris Powell have ben appointed joint administrators. Mr Duncan said the company's pearl farming business had creditors owed around $6 million while investments in the various managed investment schemes totalled around $35 million, with some 600 members.

The chief executive of collapsed clothing retailer Colorado Group is already looking beyond the receivership process to an aggressive strategy that could more than double the size of its Jag and Diana Ferrari chains over five years, The Australian reported. Kevin Roberts, who joined Colorado just five months before it was placed in receivership by lenders owed $400 million, says that the Affinity Equity-backed group's problems are mostly confined to its balance sheet.

Debt has forced a major Australian vegetable grower of tomatoes, capsicums and zucchinis into receivership, The Australian reported. Barbera Farms employs more than 500 people and grows produce at Bundaberg and Childers in southern Queensland and Bowen in the state's north. The receivers, Justin Walsh and Chris Munday, partners at accounting firm Ernst & Young, expect the farm will sell within months.

A Perth building company with about $30 million in contracts from the Building the Education Revolution program has fallen into administration, pinning the blame for its financial woes on the West Australian government's mismanagement of the scheme, The Australian reported. Midland Constructions owes its creditors more than $3m and has been forced to halt work at schools in Perth's eastern suburbs and Avon Valley.

The receivers of Australian clothing and footwear retailer Colorado Group have put the businesses up for sale, asking for expressions of interest by April 19, Reuters reported. Colorado Group, owned by Affinity Equity Partners, surrendered control of the business to its lenders last week. It was the second private-equity-owned store chain to do so in Australia in as many months after the collapse of bookstore owner REDGroup. Colorado's lenders, including Mizuho Corporate Bank , National Australia Bank and several hedge funds, are owed about A$400 million ($411.5 million).