17. Contingent liabilities
The National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014 provides for the transfer of the liabilities of the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission (the “Commission”) to the NTMA (as controller and manager of the ISIF) on and after the date of constitution of the ISIF, and states that the NTMA (as controller and manager of the ISIF) is responsible for discharging the obligations of the Commission under any such liability. In this regard, litigation is on-going in New York in respect of the 2007 leveraged buy-out of the Tribune Company. The litigation, which consists of a federal law action and a number of related state law actions, involves more than 5,000 shareholders of the Tribune Company, including the Commission.
In January 2017, the federal law action against the shareholder defendants, including the Commission, was dismissed by a New York District Court. In March 2018, the plaintiff sought leave to amend the complaint to assert a further count against shareholder defendants. The related state law claims had been dismissed, but are currently the subject of an appeal by the plaintiffs to the Supreme Court, which remains pending.
As of the reporting date, no provision has been recognised in these financial statements as the possibility of an outflow of resources cannot be reliably determined and it is not practicable to estimate the financial effect, if any, should the appeal materialise and succeed.