New Ministerial Determination – Retail Leases Act

The Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade has published a new Determination pursuant to the Retail Leases Act 2003 to exclude from the operation of the Act retail leases to tenants which are listed corporations of Stock Exchanges outside of Australia.

The Determination takes effect from 12 August 2016 and revokes the previous Determination of 5 January 2012, which applied to the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

The exemption in the Retail Leases Act previously only excluded tenant companies whose securities were listed on a Stock Exchange outside of Australia and that were members of the World Federation of Exchanges (or subsidiaries of such companies).

Given that many international Stock Exchanges were not members of the World Federation of Exchanges and given that the membership fluctuated, the Minister has issued the new Determination to exclude the following kinds of tenants:

“Bodies corporate or companies or corporations whose securities are listed on a stock exchange outside Australia or the subsidiaries (including subsidiaries as defined in section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001) of such bodies corporate, companies or corporations.”

As a result of the new Determination, a broader range of tenants of retail leases will now be excluded from the operation of and protections granted under the Retail Leases Act 2003.

Author: Cathy Drake

Published: 20 September 2016

 

The information in this article is general in nature and is not to be relied upon as legal advice. As always, we recommend you seek thorough legal advice to consider your own circumstances and determine whether the information contained in this article is applicable to you.  This article is current as at the date of publishing but will not be updated as circumstances change.