RBS Shares Rights Issue

EightOfHearts

I purchased a number of shares in the RBS Rights issue at I think £2 each. I have the share certificate. I read that the bank have agreed to pay 82p per share as compensation as a result of a court case made through a firm of solicitors for a number of shareholders. I was unaware that an action was taking place and was not invited to join the group in question. As the Bank has admitted liability will I be able to claim for my shares and who should I contact at the Bank or otherwise.

george4064

I think you'd be better off contacting the registrar on your share certificates.

bowlhead99

EightOfHearts wrote: »

As the Bank has admitted liability will I be able to claim for my shares and who should I contact at the Bank or otherwise.

a) the bank hasn't admitted liability otherwise they would be liable for a lot more cash to a lot more people

b) if you didn't join the people taking RBS to court, you can't have a piece of the resulting out-of-court settlement of that action. Feel free to take RBS to court yourself, in a separate action.

DavePollard

I would have thought that now RBS has created a precedent by agreeing to pay out they would have difficulty successfully defending any further claims in respect of the Rights Issue. Also it would cost them more money for legal fees. You have nothing to loose by testing the water and making a claim maybe through the registrars to see what reply you receive. If a negative response, then you may wish to consider taking some form of legal action yourselves. Make sure you quote your shareholding number on any correspondence. Good Luck

bowlhead99

DavePollard wrote: »

I would have thought that now RBS has created a precedent by agreeing to pay out they would have difficulty successfully defending any further claims in respect of the Rights Issue. Also it would cost them more money for legal fees.

On the contrary there is no precedent that would stop them defending small claims.

They had an absolutely massive claim brought in court by people who owned hundreds of millions of shares and had the financial clout to threaten long drawn out court action which could have cost multiples of what they settled out of court. It would have been potentially very risky to not settle, and say "well, see you in court then" not just because losing would be expensive but losing on court would open the floodgates to more claims for all and sundry to get nodded through. So, they settled WITHOUT setting a precedent in court.

But if you turn up with your five shares or whatever and say, "hey, pay me out or I'll take you to court", they will tell you to get stuffed, because they know you won't have resources (without bankrupting yourself) to assemble the evidence and fight term in court for years. And you would not have the "big guns" of other wealthy former shareholders alongside you in court because they have already settled and agreed not to go back to court.

You have nothing to loose by testing the water and making a claim maybe through the registrars to see what reply you receive.

Nothing to lose except the time taken to write to the registrars (who don't handle compensation claims, and all claims will be denied by the company)

. If a negative response, then you may wish to consider taking some form of legal action yourselves. Make sure you quote your shareholding number on any correspondence. Good Luck

Yes, good luck to you, but if you think you're going to mount a serious legal challenge when all the other interested parties who had decent quantities of shares have already blown their load, you're dreaming.

Unfortunately if you decide to be an owner of a bank you might lose any of your investment, up to and including all of it. If you then want to sue an international banking organisation that has billions of pounds and government backing... that's a recipe to lose a LOT more than your original stake.

fairways9

RBS has absolutely not admitted liability. The settlement with the shareholder groups is considered by FCA as inapplicable to any shareholder not in the action groups. I am one of those and livid. The way suggested by the FCA is to start a legal action oneself. Fear of legal costs prevented me from joining a group in the first place. The only hope is for those shareholders who participated in the rights issue and did not join an action group to get together and demand compensation. After all a settlement without admission of liability is a distribution. Maybe MSE can help getting us all together.

eskbanker

fairways9 wrote: »

RBS has absolutely not admitted liability. The settlement with the shareholder groups is considered by FCA as inapplicable to any shareholder not in the action groups. I am one of those and livid. The way suggested by the FCA is to start a legal action oneself. Fear of legal costs prevented me from joining a group in the first place. The only hope is for those shareholders who participated in the rights issue and did not join an action group to get together and demand compensation. After all a settlement without admission of liability is a distribution. Maybe MSE can help getting us all together.

If you were fearful of legal costs when you previously had the opportunity to join a shareholder action group, what makes you think it would be different this time round?