With Price Harry and Wills announcing a concert for their mum, Princess Diana (deceased) at Wembley stadium, you can’t help but imagine Sir Elton John taking to the stage surrounded by men in hard hats still putting the roof on or something. Well, funny I should mention that, because the hold up has resulted in a bit of legal action.
The Australian developer of Wembley Stadium, Multiplex, is getting it’s arse royally sued the shareholders.
A law firm called Maurice Blackburn Cashman have apparently lodged ‘a class action’
for 100m Australian dollars (£40m, $78m) on behalf of Multiplex
shareholders.
The firm claims Multiplex failed to keep shareholders fully informed
about problems it was having with Wembley.
Of course, Multiplex aren’t having any of that, and have said that no proceedings have been served so
far.
Multiplex announced the project was making a loss in May 2005, but reports claim that the firm was behind schedule and incurred cost
overruns by August 2004.
This legal action business comprises of 45 investors ranging from large
institutions to small shareholders and Maurice Blackburn Cashman head honcho,
Andrew Watson, has said in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Multiplex knew of delays and cost overruns at Wembley but didn’t
reveal those to the market," he said.
"When they were revealed to the market, the share price plummeted and
investors suffered substantial losses."
The 90,000 capacity stadium was originally scheduled to open in 2005… however Wembley is now not due to open until 2007. Hands up if you’re not holding your breath….
The stadium nearly brought English football to its knees when it was revealed that the problems surrounding the stadium brought its operating company to the brink of a collapse that would have dragged the FA down with it, according to FA accounts.
The FA had warned its shareholders that the risk will not be fully averted until after the venue is fully operational. We’ve already reported that English football came within a whisker of disaster over this project, which is shown by the FA’s accounts which "lay bare the precariousness of Wembley National Stadium Limited." The English FA had missed the first payment to the creditors because of the hold up and have to pay around £33million in
interest… not to mention the £150m in claims from
Multiplex over what the Australian builder considered to be ad hoc
changes in the design specifications for which its client was
responsible. It’s gone beyond a farce hasn’t it? [Mof Gimmers]