Rathbone Brothers confirmed it has agreed to a settlement of legal proceedings in Jersey following a claim brought by a former director as it revealed funds under management grew to £23.9bn in the first half of 2014.
In a statement, the company said that on July 23 2014 it had “joined into a conditional agreement to contribute £15m to a settlement of legal proceedings in Jersey involving a former director and employee of a former subsidiary, Rathbone Trust Company Jersey Limited and in respect of legal proceedings against certain of Rathbones’ civil liability (professional indemnity) insurers”.
The legal battle arose from a claim made in 2012 over the management of the offshore trust which Rathbones had sold in 2008.
Philip Howell, chief executive of Rathbones, said: “We are pleased to have closed off this long-running matter and to have removed this uncertainty from our business.”
He added that joining a settlement was in “the best commercial interests of the company” and revealed that the claim had incurred legal costs of £5m.
In its interim results, Rathbones reported total funds under management at June 30 of £23.9bn, up 8.6 per cent from £22bn at the end of 2013.
Pre-tax profit was £30.9m for the six months to end of June 2014, an increase of 33.2 per cent compared to the previous six-month period.
The company has completed its acquisition of part of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management’s London-based private client investment management business, which added £617m of funds under management by June this year.
It stated that the acquisition of the private client and charity investment management business of Jupiter Asset Management is expected to complete at the end of the third quarter.
Mr Howell said: “The impact of recent acquisitions is expected to have a positive effect on earnings in 2015. We are continuing to invest carefully in the skills and systems required to achieve our growth objectives. Rathbones’ outlook therefore remains positive.”
