Retrospective valuation for an Australian class action

A leading international law firm engaged Osborne Partners to support a shareholder class action in Australia. The claim alleged that a listed minerals company had issued misleading accounts, overstating the value of its business units and raising capital on that basis. Our role was not to quantify shareholder losses, but to provide independent valuations of the company’s business units at multiple points in time, so the legal team could anchor the broader case in a defensible view of fair value.

Expert:

Chris Osborne

Charles Larminie

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Investigate

Our work began with a forensic review of the available records. We analysed management reporting, internal financial models, board materials and contemporaneous forecasts to understand how the business was performing at each relevant date, and how management described the underlying assumptions. With a vast document set available, experience mattered: we focused on the materials most likely to drive valuation conclusions, including commodity price assumptions, operational forecasts and board-level decision-making.

Where internal documents were incomplete or inconsistent, we supplemented them with external evidence, including analyst reports and market commentary, to test whether the company’s internal narrative aligned with observable industry conditions. This approach allowed us to build an objective picture of the business, grounded in contemporaneous evidence rather than hindsight.

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Evaluate

Building on this foundation, we developed tailored valuation models for each of the company’s four business units. For each of the four time periods, we refreshed assumptions on revenue drivers, costs, and market conditions, producing a set of robust valuations aligned to the evolving reality of the business. Osborne Partners’ familiarity with different jurisdictional frameworks was critical, ensuring our work met the standards of the Australian courts while remaining practical and transparent for the client.

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Communicate

Our conclusions were set out in detailed valuation reports, supported by a clear explanation of the framework, key inputs and sensitivities. Because the claimant group did not have access to internal management insight, our work also helped the instructing team interpret the underlying economics and performance drivers of the business across the different periods, providing context for how and why value shifted over time. Our analysis gave them a credible and defensible foundation on which to build their case.

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