BNY Mellon Corporate Trustee Services Ltd v LBG Capital No 1 plc and another [2016] UKSC 29

‘In March 2009, the financial services regulatory authority conducted a stress test of a banking group against the then applicable benchmark of a ratio of core tier 1 (“CT1”) capital to risk-weighted assets. The test demonstrated a shortage of capital. As a result, the defendants, two wholly-owned subsidiaries of the group, issued contingent convertible securities, described as enhanced capital notes. The notes, which carried a relatively high rate of interest, were not redeemable until specified maturity dates between 2019 and 2032 unless they were converted into shares on the occurrence of a conversion trigger, being any time when the group’s CT1 ratio fell below 5%, or they were redeemed early by the group on the occurrence of a capital disqualification event. Under clause 19 of the notes’ terms and conditions, contained in the trust deed, a capital disqualification event was deemed to have occurred if the notes ceased to be taken into account for the purposes of any stress test applied by the regulatory authority in respect of the group’s “consolidated CT1 ratio”. In 2013 regulatory changes replaced CT1 capital with a more restrictive category, common equity tier 1 (“CET1”) capital. The regulatory authority announced that the notes would now need to have a trigger for conversion higher than 5.125% CET1 in order to count as core capital but, under the terms of the notes, conversion would only be triggered if the group’s CET1 ratio fell to 1%. In December 2014 the regulatory authority carried out a stress test which did not take into account the notes and, as a result, the group announced that a capital disqualification event had occurred and that it was entitled to redeem the notes. The claimant trustee, on behalf of the note holders, sought a declaration that a capital disqualification event had not occurred, contending that the December 2014 stress test was not relevant for the purposes of clause 19 because it had been conducted by reference to a CET1 ratio rather than a consolidated CT1 ratio and that, alternatively, the fact that the notes had not been taken into account in the December 2014 stress test was not enough to trigger a capital disqualification event, rather the notes had to have been disallowed in principle from being taken into account for the purposes of the tier 1 ratio. The judge rejected the trustee’s first argument but accepted the second argument and declared that a capital disqualification event had not occurred. On the defendants’ appeal, the Court of Appeal, in construing the trust deed, took into account statements in the exchange offer memorandum, a letter from the group’s chairman and documents issued by the regulatory authority at and before the time at which the notes had been issued, and it allowed the appeal, holding that a capital disqualification event had occurred and that, therefore, the defendants were entitled to redeem the notes.’

WLR daily, 16th June 2016

Source: www.iclr.co.uk