Following the news on the legal action to be taken against Gunns by the IMF, the Company's shares dropped by 8.9% closing at 40.5¢. This figure has been seen as the lowest since 2000.

IMF has alleged that the Company has failed to produce sufficient information on its performance in the first half of fiscal 2009.

Gunns proclaimed a first-half income of $400,000 on February 22, which came out to be surprisingly far below the expectations.

IMF has also alleged that Gunns has been involved in misguiding the people by repetitively violating the obligatory disclosing of August 31 and February 22.

As disclosed by the Company, its profit amounted to $12.3 million in the first half of the year.

According to the class action, Gunns has failed to enumerate the causes of the downturn prior to the February 22 release. IMF is now contacting the shareholders to check whether they any complaints against Gunns, thereby asking them to join the class action.

''That process usually takes four to six weeks before we can ascertain whether there is enough volume of loss for it to be a viable claim", an IMF spokesman said.

Shares in IMF lost 4.5¢, or 2.8 per cent, to close at $1.55. IMF is a publicly listed company that provides funding of legal claims where the claim size is more than $2 million.