An investment company part-owned by Peter Klimt and Guy Naggar is suing a bank over share sales that it made during the unravelling of their Dawnay Day empire in July 2008.
Staracre, which Klimt and Naggar own with Frank and Kevin Oppenheim, last week filed a claim against FIBI Bank (UK), the
Particulars of the claim have not yet been disclosed, but it was revealed at a pre-action court hearing in May that Staracre planned to sue over various alleged breaches to their relationship in the sale of shares in AIM-listed Sirius Real Estate, which was formerly known as Dawnay Day Sirius.
FIBI held the Sirius shares on behalf of Staracre as security on a debt facility. Staracre owned 27.8 million shares in Sirius, representing a 9% stake.
Sirius, an investor in German property, was managed by a jv between Dawnay Day and the Oppenheims until August 2008, when Principle Capital Partners bought out Dawnay Day’s stake.
At the May hearing, lawyers for Staracre claimed that, on Monday 14 July 2008, “as a result of panic or acting in bad faith,” FIBI sold 12.8 million of the shares “at whatever price it could get”.
They claimed that, without adequate notice, the sale went ahead “first thing on Monday morning” after it emerged over the weekend that Dawnay Day had appointed Ernst & Young to restructure the group.
Romi Tager QC, for Staracre, said that FIBI had not been entitled to sell the shares since Sirius was independent of Dawnay Day and the debt-facility agreement had not been subject to default.
FIBI, which is defending the claim and has instructed Rosenblatt Solicitors, claimed that it gave adequate notice and was entitled to sell following a default, arguing that it had obtained the best price available.
