RBS investors held settlement talks

LONDON: Lawyers representing tens of thousands of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shareholders have held tentative talks to settle a 1.2 billion pound ($1.5 billion) damages claim over the lender´s 2008 rights issue that was launched shortly before a state bailout, two sources said.

The sources, who are familiar with the situation, said RBS and the RBoS Shareholder Action group, which includes 27,000 private investors, former and current RBS staff and about 100 institutions, had discussed an out-of-court deal.

In a move highlighting the difficulties of rallying such a vast group -- the last of five shareholder claims yet to settle with the bank -- one source warned that some retail investors were determined to take the case to trial in May.

One of the investors backing those retail claimants is multimillionaire businessman Trevor Hemmings, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

His involvement will go some way to answering questions by RBS and a judge as to whether the claimants have adequate funding.

The bank has been applying pressure on the shareholder group to reveal its backers and sources of funding after it switched legal teams three times and some institutions broke away in 2015 to launch separate litigation.

A settlement would end one of the most complex and costly litigation battles in English legal history.