‘A £600m case is due to begin in the high court this week which is expected to lead to five former directors of Lloyds Banking Group being asked to explain the circumstances that led to the rescue of HBOS during the height of the financial crisis.’
The Guardian, 15th October 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The question of whether a case will fall if a judge rejects a party’s evidence on grounds which that party has not had a chance to explain during the trial should be based on whether the overall trial is fair, senior UK judges have indicated.’
OUT-LAW.com, 18th August 2017
Source: www.out-law.com
‘A recent decision by the Supreme Court has clarified the circumstances in which the court will be able to impose a financial requirement as a condition of the grant of permission to appeal, an expert has said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 4th August 2017
Source: www.out-law.com
‘In a long running shareholder dispute, the claimant company sought its costs from the defendants. The defendants had made 3 Part 36 offers in respect of the claimants claim against them. The judge had determined a number of issues in a hearing in November 2016, however there were other remaining issues to be tried. The court was made aware of the fact, but NOT the content, of the offers.’
Zenith PI Blog, 31st July 2017
Source: zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) could withdraw previous guidance in relation to losses arising from the exercise of share options, even though other taxpayers whose affairs could not be reopened had benefited from the treatment, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
OUT-LAW.com, 28th July 2017
Source: www.out-law.com
‘The City regulator is proposing to water down stock market rules in a move regarded as an attempt to attract the world’s biggest ever flotation – of Saudi Aramco, the Gulf kingdom’s state oil company – to London.’
The Guardian, 13th July 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Fred Goodwin has escaped being summoned to the high court to explain his actions during the 2008 financial crisis, after disgruntled shareholders finally reached a settlement with Royal Bank of Scotland.’
The Guardian, 6th June 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A judge will hear on Wednesday whether a deal has been agreed to avert a legal battle that would force the former RBS chairman Fred Goodwin to give evidence in the high court.’
The Guardian, 24th May 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Royal Bank of Scotland has made a last-ditch effort to avert a high-profile court case brought by thousands of investors who claim they were misled into buying the bank’s shares in the runup to its taxpayer bailout.’
The Guardian, 22nd May 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Tesco has agreed to pay a fine of £129m to avoid prosecution for overstating its profits in 2014.’
BBC News, 28th March 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A party-loving admin assistant who was accused of conning pensioners out of more than £2million by selling fraudulent shares has been banned from directing a company but will not face criminal charges.’
Daily Telegraph, 16th January 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The modern court will not allow itself to be used as a “weapon of senseless war”, a judge has warned a family locked in a bitter costs dispute.’
Litigation Futures, 6th December 2016
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘Guidance and specimen policy documents to help quoted companies comply with new market abuse rules when dealing in shares have been published by the UK’s main trade bodies for governance professionals and general counsel.’
OUT-LAW.com, 29th June 2016
Source: www.out-law.com
‘The shareholder claimed to have purchased a 66·6% share in the company, a United Kingdom holding company of a group operating in South East Asia. Following a substantial fall in the share price the shareholder requested that the directors call a general meeting of the company, which, by section 303 of the Companies Act 2006, they were required to do if they received requests from members representing at least 5% of the paid-up capital of the company. The directors refused to call the general meeting requested, contending that the shareholder’s shares were in fact not paid up. The shareholder served a notice pursuant to section 305 of the 2006 Act, by which a shareholder was entitled to call a meeting if the directors had wrongfully refused to do so. The company subsequently informed the shareholder that it had issued further shares to a Malaysian company reducing his shareholding to 1·17%. The shareholder commenced two actions, one by a petition for a declaration that the notice served by him under section 305 of the 2006 Act was valid and effective and a direction that the general meeting be held, and the other, by a Part 8 claim form for an order rectifying the company’s register of members to delete the additional share issue for want of authorisation.’
WLR Daily, 17th May 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘In a recent decision the Companies Court has held that trustees in bankruptcy do not need to satisfy the actual registration requirements set out in s.124(2)(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“IA”) before presenting a just and equitable winding-up petition. For the first time, the decision in Stratford Edward Hamilton & James Ashley Dowers (Trustees in Bankruptcy of Charles Newell Brown) v Maureen Frances Brown & C&MB Holdings Ltd [2016] EWHC 191 (Ch)puts bankruptcy trustees in the same position as they are in with respect to unfair prejudice petitions and means that they do not have to wait a minimum of six months following their appointment to have the necessary locus to present a just and equitable winding up petition.’
New Square Chambers, 11th April 2016
Source: www.newsquarechambers.co.uk
‘A 20-day time limit within which claims for breaches of warranty as part of a share purchase agreement (SPA) had to be raised only began running once the buyer was aware of the “proper basis for a claim”, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
OUT-LAW.com, 29th March 2016
Source: www.out-law.com
‘Directors of a publicly-listed gas exploration company were not entitled to impose voting restrictions on certain shareholders which had failed to comply with statutory disclosure notices, the UK’s highest court has ruled.’
OUT-LAW.com, 4th December 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
‘The double negative is not in error. Shareholder disputes are frequently similar to an old fashioned divorce, with emotion and greed outgunning logic and truth in the contest for control of anything of value left over from the wreckage of a once prosperous partnership. But in the recent BVI case of Zhangyong v Union Zone Management Limited and others, the issue arose as to whether, as with a modern disaffected couple, unhappy shareholders could get a no fault divorce. In Union Zone, the Claimants had sought to establish unfair prejudice under s184I of the BVI Companies Act 2004 (which is similar in effect to s994 Companies Act 2006) but wholly failed to prove the alleged quasi partnership that underpinned the unfair prejudice allegations. The Claimants, who had pleaded winding up on the just and equitable ground as an alternative remedy for unfair prejudice, then sought to avail themselves of that as a free standing remedy, on the basis that it provided “a neat and fair solution”. The relevant question, however, was “a neat and fair solution to what?” The answer was, to their disenchantment with the manner in which the majority was conducting the business of the company. The authorities are clear: wide though the just and equitable jurisdiction may be, it is not a get out of jail free card for disaffected shareholders. Lord Wilberforce said, in Ebrahimi v Westbourne Galleries.’
New Square Chambers, 30th September 2015
Source: www.newsquarechambers.co.uk
Serious Fraud Office v Saleh [2015] EWHC 2119 (QB); [2015] WLR (D) 368
‘Where the court in another jurisdiction made an order for the restoration of shares to their owner in consequence of the abandonment of forfeiture proceedings by the prosecuting authority in that jurisdiction, the prosecuting authority in the United Kingdom was not prevented from initiating proceedings against the proceeds of sale of those shares located within the United Kingdom.’
WLR Daily, 21st July 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
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