Tutorial Activity (Groupwork)

After several months of negotiations, the CEO of BIG Pty Ltd made the long-awaited announcement to board members that BIG Pty Ltd would be buying Melbourne based company, YAY Pty Ltd for $25m. The following persons were present at the meeting: Helen and Liam (Company Directors) and Tammy (Receptionist taking meeting minutes). News of the take-over would not be released to the public until the following week.

(a)Assume Helen owns 50,000 shares in YAY Pty Ltd . Discuss whether she would be breaching any duties if she makes asecret profit of $500,000 from the takeover.What can Helen do to avoid breaching any duties?

(b)Discuss whether Tammy would be breaching any duties if, immediately after leaving the boardroom, she phoned herhusbandand told him to invest $100,000 in YAY Pty Ltd.

(c)What if you were told that BIG Pty Ltd spent the past few months deciding whether to buy YAY Pty Ltd .. or whether to buyanother company called BOO Pty Ltd. Discuss whether Liam would breach any duties if, after learning that BIG rejected BOOPty Ltd's offer, Liam went out and made an offer to purchase BOO Pty Ltd without telling BIG Pty Ltd.