‘Mugged’ group in court defeat

Lloyds Banking Group shareholders expressed “bitter disappointment” after losing a multimillion-pound High Court action over the acquisition of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).

A judge sitting in London yesterday dismissed an action by a group of 5,803 former Lloyds TSB shareholders, who claimed they were “mugged” when the bank recommended the January 2009 deal without disclosing HBOS’s true financial state.

Sir Alastair Norris announced his decision

“A bitter disappointment to thousands of shareholders”

following a 2017 trial of the case, brought by the shareholders against Lloyds and former executives over alleged losses running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Lloyds “robustly” contested the civil legal action, saying it did not consider there was “any merit” in the claims.

Wayne Kitcat, a member of the clients’ committee bringing the action, said: “The decision of the judge is a bitter disappointment to thousands of Lloyds shareholders, many of whom have been left destitute by the acquisition of HBOS.”

Law firm Harcus Parker, representing 300 institutions and almost 6,000 individuals in the case, said clients were considering an appeal.