WHITE & CASE’S YOULE EXITS FOR SKADDEN
In a major blow for White & Case’s City private equity practice, EMEA private equity co-head Richard Youle will join Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, ending his long-running pairing with partner Ian Bagshaw. The duo has known each other since they were at Eversheds in the 1990s.
Youle and Bagshaw joined White & Case from Linklaters in 2013, taking up their co-head roles in 2015. Bagshaw told Legal Business: ‘This move makes sense for him. We have had a great run since joining up in 2013 and I will continue building out White & Case’s private equity practice in London going forward with the wider team.’
Youle said: ‘Skadden has one of the most envied corporate practices in the world and an exemplary quality-focused team that is simply unmatched.’
RBS RIGHTS ISSUE CASE NEARS SETTLEMENT; DEFENCE COSTS CONCERN JUDGE
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) £4bn shareholder rights issue trial has been adjourned until press time following a last-minute 82p per share settlement offer from RBS on 21 May. In a preliminary judgment published on 23 May, Mr Justice Hildyard stated his concern over the bank’s ‘extraordinary’ costs.
RBS’ recent offer to the 9,000 remaining claimants is double previous settlement sums in the litigation.
The trial was due to open on 22 May, but was adjourned to allow the claimants time to consider the offer. The case was expected to settle before trial in early June.
In Hildyard’s interim ruling considering defendant RBS’s application for £11.6m security for costs against litigation funders Hunnewell Partners and London and Northern Capital Partners, Hildyard noted the ‘sheer size’ of RBS’ legal costs meant securing adequate after-the-event insurance cover was ‘difficult, if not impossible’, adding the costs incurred by the defence were of ‘very great concern’.
Around 27,000 retail investors brought the action in 2012. Of Signature’s claimant group, 60% have already settled with RBS in April.
The claimants maintain they were misled about the true state of RBS’ finances when it issued its prospectus for a £12bn rights issue in 2008.