ACTIONS CORNER
The Commerzbank, along with the Royal Bank of Scotland and South Africa's Standard Bank, has sued the Dubai Group. The heavily indebted investment firm owes its creditors ten billion U.S. dollars. Although a non-judicial way would be preferable, the Dubai Group had so far produced no viable proposal for an appropriate settlement, it was stated. After two years of fruitless talks on debt restructuring there were no alternatives, the banks said in a joint statement on 13 September.
On 28 November, a second case under the Capital Markets Model Case Act (KapMuG) against Deutsche Telekom starts before the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court (OLG), after the court again determined a lead plaintiff out of the flood of plaintiffs who accuse Telekom of errors in the prospectus for the so-called second IPO in 1999. The Frankfurt am Main Regional Court had brought several claims for damages against Telekom to the OLG for a decision under the KapMuG. The Regional Court’s order for reference concerns a three-digit number of investor complainants.
Oracle has filed an appeal against the compensation payment of $306 million agreed in August, says SAP. Thus, the German software company faces an extension of the five-year data-theft dispute. At worst, the appeal process would last two years, SAP adds. It was disappointing that Oracle was dragging this litigation out further. Both sides had agreed on a reasonable settlement. SAP believes the case has lasted long enough. The case is now before an appeals court in San Francisco.
The Bundeskartellamt has imposed fines for crimes of collusion totalling €24.3 million against several suppliers of power transformers. The companies, including Siemens, ABB, Alstom Grid in Frankfurt and Starkstrom-Gerätebau in Regensburg, had from spring 1999 until March 2004 made restrictive agreements and divided the German market for power transformers among themselves. Tenders of numerous energy companies were involved, said the agency’s President Andreas Mundt. The proceedings were initiated in August 2008.