Quindell hands out £415m divi

QUINDELL shareholders got some rare good news yesterday as the company announced it was giving them a £415m pay-out.

The insurance claims management company has had a turbulent two years, which has seen its share price fall from 615p to just over 30p before recovering.

The business is currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for alleged aggressive accounting practices.

And legal proceedings have been launched against the firm by a group thought to be Quindell shareholders demanding £9m of compensation for its restating of financial accounts.

The windfall announced yesterday – which comes to 100p per share – will pass to shareholders most of the £637m made from Quindell’s sale of its professional services operation to solicitors Slater & Gordon.

Shareholders will get 90p per share in December, and a further 10p per share at the end of 2016.

A Quindell spokesman said: ‘In consultation with its legal and financial advisers, and following detailed internal and external consideration of the company’s actual and prospective contingent creditors, the board considers that an initial capital repayment to shareholders of 90p per share is both prudent and appropriate.’

Shares fell 2.75p to 99.5p.