Australia's largest gold miner, Newcrest, has settled a class action brought against it by a group of shareholders who alleged the company breached continuous disclosure rules.
Newcrest Mining will pay $36 million including costs, legal fees and interest to settle the claim by a family trustee company, Earglow, on behalf of investors who bought shares in the company between August 2012 and June 2013.
The claimants alleged Newcrest had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by "providing production guidance without reasonable grounds" and breaching continuous disclosure rules "by failing to inform the market of price sensitive information".
Newcrest will take a hit on its 2016 full-year results reflecting the payout.
"The settlement is without any admission of liability by Newcrest and is subject to court approval," the company said in a statement.
"The settlement was agreed in the best interest of Newcrest shareholders to enable the company to focus on improving returns for shareholders without the risk, distraction and significant expense of a lengthy trial."
The settlement has added to Newcrest's bill for a breach of continuous disclosure rules between late-May and early-June 2013.
In June 2014, ASIC fined the company $1.2 million to settle a separate case on the matter, the largest fine levied for a breach of Australia's continuous disclosure rules.
Newcrest admitted to that breach, in which investors and investment analysts were selectively briefed on Newcrest management's expectations for the company's 2014 full-year gold production and capital spending before the information was released to the ASX.
This meant a small group of investors had price-sensitive information before the rest of the market, in contravention of the Corporations Act.
Newcrest commissioned an independent review of its disclosure practices in the wake of the incident, and made changes to its investor relations procedures.