A legal row has broken out between Invista Real Estate Investment Management and its majority shareholder Lloyds Banking Group.
The fund manager alleges that Lloyds failed to make a final payment of £545,600 after cancelling a major contract with the group last year. In November 2010, the bank said it was transferring the management of £2.4bn of HBOS funds to its other part-owned investment manager Scottish Widows.
Invista had been managing the assets on behalf of HBOS since it demerged from the bank in 2006 and listed on the Alternative Investment Market.
As part of the early termination agreement, Invista said in March that it was to receive a £3m payment from Lloyds.
The handover to SWIP was completed last month, but in a statement this week, Invista said that the final instalment of £545,600 continued to be withheld by the Lloyds parties, forcing it to launch legal action.
The Lloyds parties include Clerical Medical Investment Group, Clerical Medical Non-Sterling Property Group, Clerical Medical Managed Funds, HBOS Investment Fund Managers, Halifax Life and St Andrew’s Life Assurance.
