Businesswoman Amanda Staveley ‘cuts £1.6bn Barclays damages claim’

A businesswoman involved in a High Court battle with Barclays has cut a £1.6 billion damages claim by more than half, a judge has been told.

Amanda Staveley has made complaints about the behaviour of Barclays’ bosses when negotiating investment deals during the 2008 financial crisis.

Ms Staveley says Barclays agreed to provide an unsecured £2 billion loan to Qatari investors, but says the loan was “concealed” from the market, shareholders and PCP Capital Partners, a private equity firm she runs.

She says PCP was induced to invest on “manifestly worse terms” than Qatari Investors and but for Barclays’ “false representations” would have subscribed on “vastly better terms”.

PCP has sued the bank and wanted £1.6 billion in damages.

But lawyers representing Barclays told the judge overseeing the fight that the PCP is now making a “maximum claim” for £771 million.

Mr Justice Waksman heard evidence at a High Court hearing in London during the summer.

Lawyers returned to court on Monday to begin making final legal submissions.

“When the trial started, the quantum of the claim, as widely reported in the press, was for £1.6 billion,” Jeffery Onions QC, who leads Barclays’ legal team, told the judge in a written submission.

“No attempt was made to justify that claim. It was not until a letter dated 19 August 2020, after the evidence was concluded, that PCP acknowledged that the maximum claim for which it was now contending was less than half that amount (£771 million).”

Barclays say PCP’s claim should be dismissed.