Barclays must pay £33m legal bill for Amanda Staveley court case
Barclays will have to pay £33m in legal bills despite winning its case against Amanda Staveley over how bank bosses negotiated investment deals during the financial crash.
In the High Court today Judge David Waksman said he made “no order as to costs”, so both sides will pay their own bills.
According to court documents, Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners amassed nearly £20m in legal costs during the long-running trial.
Lawyers acting for Ms Staveley had called for the bank to contribute £11m towards her expenses.
“We welcome the Judge’s decision, which justly ensures that PCP is not liable to pay Barclays any of its costs of the litigation,” Khaled Khatoun, Staveley’s lawyer, said today.
The high-profile trial centred around the claim that Barclays gave Staveley’s private equity firm less favourable treatment than other parties in the emergency £7.3bn fundraising that saved the bank from a state bailout in 2008.
PCP lawyers argued the firm missed out on £660m after Barclays allegedly made deals with its largest investor, the Qatar state, offering it superior terms on its £2bn investment.
The trial heard claims that former Barclays’ bosses Richard Boath and Roger Jenkins allegedly called the businesswoman a “dolly bird” and a tart.
In February Judge Waksman ruled that although Barclays was guilty of serious deceit, the claim “as a whole must fail”. Barclays welcomed the ruling.