Litigation funder IMF Australia has announced that it had issued a class action against OZ Minerals in the Federal Court of Australia, on behalf of IMF clients who purchased OZ shares between August 21st 2008 and the end of November 2008.

The company is alleging that OZ engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by not disclosing debt refinancing details, when it was formed by a merger between Oxiana and Zinifex in March last year.

IMF alleges that the company failed to properly disclose the refinancing agreement when it entered it three days before the merger was announced.

IMF announced it intended to fund the class action in December 2008, welcoming all shareholders who purchased OZ shares or swapped Zinifex shares for OZ shares to participate in the claim.

Mr John Walker executive director of IMF said that the company had not been wasting its time since then. He added that "We have done a lot of work preceding the filing of the claim, we have actually commenced much quicker than what we initially thought. IMF is comfortable that the claim as merit."

In a statement, OZ Minerals confirmed that the action had been lodged. It said that "No proceedings have been served on the company, but OZ Minerals, as it has previously stated, will vigorously defend the claim."

(Sourced from www.miningaustralia.com.au)