Small investors to launch RBS claim
A GROUP of small shareholders is planning to sue Royal Bank of Scotland, claiming it misled investors in its May 2008 prospectus for a rights issue to pay for its acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
The Royal Bank of Scotland Shareholders’ Action Group said yesterday it had hired forensic accountant Paul Klumpes and was also taking legal advice over its proposed claim. The group met in London over the weekend in order to discuss its next steps. However, action group director Roger Lawson said it was likely to be
several weeks before any claim is made.
“Professor Klumpes has written a number of papers on bank accounting and is in a good position to advise us on this,” said Lawson.
The threatened action is one of a number of lawsuits faced by RBS in Britain and the US after it had to be bailed out by the UK government during the financial crisis.
Investors have also said they will sue RBS’ former directors for up to £9bn.
In the April 2008 rights issue investors bought new shares at 200p each and 95 per cent of the stock was taken up by the bank’s investors.
But only six months later the government was forced to inject capital in order to save the bank from imminent collapse.