LONDON: Lawyers representing tens of thousands of Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS) shareholders have held tentative talks to settle a 1.2 billion
pound ($1.5 billion) damages claim over the lender´s 2008 rights issue that was
launched shortly before a state bailout, two sources said.
The
sources, who are familiar with the situation, said RBS and the RBoS Shareholder
Action group, which includes 27,000 private investors, former and current RBS
staff and about 100 institutions, had discussed an out-of-court deal.
In
a move highlighting the difficulties of rallying such a vast group -- the last
of five shareholder claims yet to settle with the bank -- one source warned
that some retail investors were determined to take the case to trial in May.
One
of the investors backing those retail claimants is multimillionaire businessman
Trevor Hemmings, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
His
involvement will go some way to answering questions by RBS and a judge as to
whether the claimants have adequate funding.
The
bank has been applying pressure on the shareholder group to reveal its backers
and sources of funding after it switched legal teams three times and some
institutions broke away in 2015 to launch separate litigation.
A
settlement would end one of the most complex and costly litigation battles in
English legal history.
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