A Queensland lawyer has pleaded guilty to misleading the corporate watchdog while under oath during an investigation into a failed takeover bid.

February 15, 2019

A Queensland lawyer has admitted she misled the corporate regulator while under oath during an investigation into Gold Coast childcare giant G8 Education.

Mary-Anne Greaves, of Cairns, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates’ Court to one count of giving false or misleading information to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Greaves was examined in 2016 during the watchdog’s probe into G8’s failed attempt to buy rival Affinity Education a year earlier, an ASIC spokesman said on Friday.

The former company secretary falsely told ASIC she was unaware of certain information relating to the acquisition by West Bridge of Affinity shares at the time of the takeover bid.

G8 Education announced its $162 million takeover bid for the then-ASX-listed Affinity in July 2015.

Following that announcement, West Bridge acquired 11,300,000 Affinity shares.

G8 raised its offer in August but was trumped by a $213 million bid by private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners.

Following complaints by Affinity, the Takeovers Panel declared there were “unacceptable circumstances” in relation to G8’s failed bid. 

The panel found that there was an undisclosed association between G8 Education and West Bridge in the acquisition of Affinity shares.

G8’s former chairperson and associate of Greaves, Jennifer Joan Hutson of Red Hill in Brisbane, is facing 30 charges related to the same takeover bid.

The maximum penalty for giving false or misleading information during an ASIC examination is two years imprisonment.

Greaves will be sentenced in the same court on May 24.

G8 Education said Greaves had, at no time, been an employee or board member of G8 Education.

The charges related to individual actions by Greaves and do not involve G8 Education, it said.