Barclays Plc is facing a £71m lawsuit in London as CF Partners claims that the bank misused confidential information from a potential client to seal the deal on a Swedish carbon trading company takover.
The Financial Times reported that CF Partners, a UK-based advisory and trading firm, claimed it went to Barclays in September 2008 to see if the British lender could offer financing for a transaction with Stockholm-based Tricorona.
When the deal collapsed, Barclays used the work CF had done on the value of Tricorona’s carbon credits to pursue its own deal with the Swedish firm almost two years later.
“CF Partners provided Barclays with a single, composite piece of information, namely the fact that Tricorona was an attractive and available takeover/purchase prospect,” the claim said, according to the FT.
Although CF says it remained committed to pursuing a transaction, it never signed a formal letter of engagement with the British bank.
Barclays said the case was “without merit” and would be contested “vigorously” by the bank.
“Barclays had no contractual relationship with CF Partners and did not enter into any advisory mandate,” the bank said.
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