(Bloomberg) — A firm run by former Barclays Plc chief Bob Diamond won a UK court ruling over the acquisition of a Zambian bank in 2016, avoiding a multi million dollar payout.
The court rejected a claim brought by Finance Bank Zambia’s founder Rajan Mahtani, who had alleged Diamond’s Atlas Mara Ltd. failed to pay in full for the lender’s acquisition. “The claimants had failed to prove that they had suffered any loss” and the case is “unsustainable,” the judge said in the ruling.
Mahtani will appeal the ruling, his spokesperson said in statement. He “will now look to how this unjust enrichment of at least $49.2 million plus interest” may be compensated, according to the statement.
Read more: Bob Diamond’s Atlas Mara Sued Over Zambian Bank Deal
After stepping down from Barclays in 2012, Diamond founded the Africa-focused banking firm that has since scaled back its ambitions. Diamond was sued last year by Mahtani who accused the banker of shortchanging him, leaving him with less than a quarter of the agreed $215 million for the bank.
Spokespeople for Atlas Mara didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.
Atlas Mara had opposed the claim, and its lawyers argued that Mahtani’s claims form “part of an observable pattern of behavior” by which he “repeatedly seeks to benefit himself by unreasonable demands, threats, and continual attempts to re-open and re-negotiate the terms of deals which he has done.”
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