LONDON: Investors suing Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc over a 2008 rights offering accepted the lender’s settlement offer, ending weeks of uncertainty over a case in a London court.
The remaining shareholders who’d held out for an improved offer finally accepted RBS’s 82 pence per share offer during a Monday evening vote, a spokesman for the group said on Tuesday. The agreement is likely to be approved by a judge on Wednesday.
The last week has been filed with speculation about holdout investors’ attempts to raise enough money to fight on while larger shareholders and funders were happy with the bank’s offer. The confusion kept the possibility alive of seeing the company’s former chief executive officer Fred Goodwin give evidence about the embarrassing period for the bank.
The claimants argued that the bank deliberately concealed its financial weaknesses over its £12 billion-pound (Dh56.81 billion; $15.5 billion) emergency rights offering. The bank disputed that it had covered up any of its actions, saying the rights issue prospectus included all the information investors needed, and the claimants were overlooking how volatile markets were in 2008.
A spokesman for RBS declined to comment. Sky News earlier reported the settlement.
— Bloomberg
