Deal could let Fred the Shred escape grilling in High Court
MOST of the investors suing the Royal Bank of Scotland for more than £800million are willing to accept a deal, a judge was told yesterday.
Settling the action would mean the bank’s disgraced former boss Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin could escape a public grilling in the High Court.
Talks between the shareholders and RBS were making progress, judge Mr Justice Hildyard was told during a brief hearing in London yesterday.
The investors’ lawyer, Jonathan Nash, QC, said: ‘The majority of claimants have indicated their willingness to accept the latest offer from the defendant.
‘There now appears to be a good prospect that within the course of today the remaining claimants, or nearly all, will confirm they will agree in principle so as to bring a practical end to the proceedings.’ The judge then adjourned the hearing until today. The muchanticipated 14-week civil case was due to begin on Monday, but the judge gave the go-ahead for the start of the trial to be put back until yesterday for further settlement negotiations.
This came after the bank doubled its compensation offer – to 82p for shares investors bought
‘Make up their minds’
for £2 nine years ago. The legal action centres on a rights issue overseen by Mr Goodwin in April 2008, when RBS asked shareholders to pump £12billion into the bank. This was after leading a consortium that spent £49billion on Dutch lender ABN Amro.
Investors claimed they were left nursing hefty losses after the cash call, when RBS shares plunged 90 per cent and the Government was forced to step in with a bailout.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Hildyard said: ‘There is obvious interest in the court in seeking to facilitate a full and final settlement agreeable to the parties.’
But he warned that the court’s time should not be taken up with adjournments and that there had to be a ‘realistic timetable’.
He said: ‘There will come a time when the claimants must realise that it is incumbent on them to make up their minds whether to continue with the litigation.’
Mr Nash said that barring ‘unforeseen developments’, an adjournment of a day was enough. He added that if the trial had to go ahead, the parties were confident the case could be heard within the allotted time.
Among those to give evidence would be former RBS chief executive Mr Goodwin – known as ‘the Shred’ for his ruthless cost-cutting and named by Time magazine as one of the 25 people behind the 2008 global financial collapse. The Paisley-born banker was stripped of his knighthood in 2012.
Also due to appear in court are former chairman Sir Tom McKillop, ex-investment bank boss Johnny Cameron, and former finance director Guy Whittaker.