Subject to Federal Court approval, the closed unit holder class action was undertaken by Slater and Gordon in August last year, on behalf of more than 1,300 institutional and retail investors both in Australia and overseas, who acquired Murray Goulburn units between 29 May 2015 and 27 April 2016, the firm said.

The matter involving the milk supplier had been set down for a four-week trial scheduled for commencement in February 2020, and was being funded by IMF Bentham, a statement explained.

Pending the Federal Court’s approval, class members will receive details of the proposed settlement soon, according to Slater and Gordon, which also said that the terms of the settlement agreement would see no admission of liability made by the Murray Goulburn entities.

Highlighting that the settlement was achieved within 12 months of filing the proceeding, Slater and Gordon practice group leader Emma Pelka-Caven commented that “the conditional settlement is an outstanding outcome for group members and, if approved, will be a significant recovery of our clients’ losses”.

The director of Endeavour River Pty Ltd, the lead plaintiff in the action, Rod Gibson, said that “for the plaintiffs to recoup such a significant proportion of their losses is an excellent result when at one stage our investments seemed lost”.

“It is a tribute to the initiative and efforts of our solicitors and litigation funder,” he exclaimed.

Slater and Gordon said the class action as filed by Endeavour River is a separate proceeding to the open class action proceeding filed by John Webster ATF the Elcar Pty Ltd Super Fund Trust in 2017.

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It flagged that the Webster proceeding is continuing, with open class members in the proceeding not participants in this settlement.

The news comes as Western Australia aims to introduce a class actions regime in the state.