A property developer who owned a multimillion pound business building student halls is suing the Royal Bank of Scotland, claiming it fell into insolvency after being mis-sold a complicated financial product.
The case is being brought by businessman Stuart Wall who used to own Opal Property Group and is being contested by the bank.
Wall’s lawyers say in court documents that in 2007, Opal Propety Group’s business was “thriving and recession-proof” with assets of £213m and operating profits of £21.1m. Six years later, in 2013, the company went into administration.
According to court papers prepared for a case management conference at the High Court today, Hall claims that in 2007 the bank mis-sold the company a £196m interest rate swap that rose to £397m.
His lawyers also claim in court papers that “it appears that in order to remove [Opal Property Group’s] loans from its balance sheet, RBS subjected [Opal Property Group] from late 2009 to March 2013 to the actionable ‘exit’ practices of RBS’s notorious distressed debt unit known as its Global Restructuring Group, which had been tasked with achieving such ‘exits’”.
The case is unlikely to reach trial before the spring of 2017.
Stuart Barrie Wall v The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. Queen’s Bench Division of the Commercial Court
