Bank and Doyle Group settle row
The Doyle Group, which acts as a holding company for several firms providing shipping and warehousing services at all major Irish ports, wanted to refinance its Bank of Scotland’s loans with Ulster and claimed BOS’s sale to the Blue Bay fund would be damaging for it and its workers.
In its action the group claimed BOS’s attempt to sell the debt to a third party amounts to breach of a May 2012 agreement between the parties.
BOS had denied any wrongdoing.
Yesterday at the Commercial Court, following extensive talks between the parties, counsel for the group Michael Howard SC told Mr Justice Brian McGovern the matter had been settled, and could be struck out.
No details of the settlement were revealed in open court and the terms of the agreement are understood to be confidential.
The case, had it gone ahead, was expected to last for at least eight days.
The group had previously failed to secure an injunction restraining BOS transferring to any third party any right, interest or obligation under that May 2012 agreement, pending the full hearing of the dispute.
In seeking the injunction, the group, who had brought an action for damages against BOS, claimed it was in the process of refinancing its BOS loans with Ulster Bank when it learned, much to its surprise, BOS hadentered into a secondprocess concerning selling the group’s debt to third parties.
It claimed BOS sold its debt for €53m to the Blue Bay investment fund when it had been represented to BOS no such assignments should happen. The group feared if the debt was sold to the hedge fund, its assets could be stripped down and sold off, ultimately destroying the companies and affecting several hundred jobs.
BOS denied it acted in breach of its agreement with the Doyle Group. It also claimed Blue Bay will act no differently than the bank in dealing with the Doyle Group.
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