US real estate investment firm Bugsby Property is suing Legal & General’s property investment arm for more than £200m over an unsuccessful bid on the iconic London event space Olympia.
The property was bought in 2017 by a consortium put together by British investment firm Yoo Capital, with former owners Capco rejecting a bid from Bugsby and a Chinese firm.
According to court papers, Legal & General’s property investment unit LGIM helped arrange finance for the successful bid. However, Bugsby said that it had previously approached LGIM to help finance a bid for Olympia, and the pair of them had signed an exclusivity and confidentiality agreement.
Bugsby is suing LGIM for as much as £214m for damages caused by “loss of chance”.
According to a preliminary ruling handed down yesterday, L&G agues that Bugsby isn’t entitled to the damages it seeks. It argues that its breach of the agreement didn’t cause Bugsby a loss because Capco would still have sold Olympia to the Yoo consortium.
It argues that the Yoo bid, compared to Bugsby, was “by far the more reputable, reliable and desirable counterparty from Capco’s perspective and its bid would have appeared to Capco to be more likely to complete and do so quickly.”
In a preliminary ruling yesterday, High Court Mr Justice Henshaw agreed to allow Bugsby access to some of the documents it had been seeking as part of the ongoing litigation.
Claimant: Bugsby Property (a company incorporated under the laws of Delaware)
Defendants: (1) LGIM Commercial Lending Ltd and (2) Legal & General Assurance Society Ltd
Respondents: (1) Yoo Capital Ltd (2) Deutsche Finance International (3) Olympus Management Ltd (4) RDM Capital Ltd (5) Capital and Counties Properties plc
Queen’s Bench Division, Mr Justice Henshaw, 27 April 2021
