THOUSANDS of RBS shareholders are edging closer to finally receiving their share of a £200 million payout from the bank, with a battle between the current and former agents that represented them to play out in court this week.
Last June the RBOS Shareholders Action Group, which previously represented 27,000 investors who answered RBS’s £12 billion cash call in 2008, agreed to accept an 82p per share offer from the bank.
Since then just £25m of the settlement has been paid out to shareholders, with an ongoing legal dispute between the Isle of Man business that funded the original claim and the action group itself meaning final payments are being delayed.
The legal teams acting for funder Manx Capital Partners and the RBOS Shareholders Action Group will face off in the High Court in London on Monday, when each side will blame the other for the impasse.
At an earlier hearing London firm Signature Litigation, which was instruted by Manx to represent the shareholders who signed up to the action group, alleged that those running the group had included 90 million “phantom shares” in its claim.
Manx wants the judge, Mr Justice Hildyard, to order the action group to hand over all documentation relating to its members so the ownership of every share being claimed for can be verified.
This is because RBS will only make a payment once its own lawyers are satisfied that the money is going to legitimate claimants on its shareholder register.
Meanwhile the action group, which formerly instructed Signature but now uses Rosenblatt Solicitors, will argue that a dispute over Signature’s fees is the reason that investors are still waiting for their settlement.
A source close to the matter said that the action group wants the judge to order a reduction in Signature’s fees so there is “more to go into the pot” for shareholders.
During an earlier court hearing between Manx and the action group Mr Justice Hildyard said it was “an appalling situation” that shareholders were still waiting for their share of the settlement, adding that that was down to “the shenanigans which are going on between the present parties”.
While the costs of bringing the claim against RBS will be met out of the £200m settlement, the RBOS Shareholders Action Group recently secured a series of loans from a British Virgin Islands-listed business in order to fund its fight against Manx.
Opis Asset Holdings, which is understood to have links to an Irish businessman, is thought to have lent the group over £1m, with security for the sum being provided by a company called Evalusafety.
Established in 2013, Evalusafety has an unknown link to the action group and is understood to be claiming £20m of the £200m settlement from RBS as a success fee related to the case.
It is thought that the loans from Opis have been secured against that as-yet unpaid £20m.
Manx - the investment vehicle of Preston North End owner Trevor Hemmings - is understood to be funding its own legal costs.
The RBOS Shareholders Action Group was one of a number of groups that took action against RBS over claims that the bank misrepresented its financial position when making its cash call at the height of the financial crisis.
Although investors paid more than £2 per share to take part in the rights issue, most of their investment was wiped out when the bank subsequently received a £45.5bn bailout from the UK Government.
While the other action groups accepted settlements of just over 40p per share between December 2016 and April 2017, the RBOS Shareholders Action Group vowed to fight on in a bid to force former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin to appear in court.
They ultimately agreed to settle out of court in June.
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