Status: 23.11.2021 7:29 p.m.
When Telekom went public for the third time in 2000, thousands of small investors lost a lot of money. Years of litigation followed. Now there is a comparison.
A solution is emerging in one of the largest investor lawsuits in Germany: the legal dispute surrounding Telekom’s third IPO. The higher regional court in Frankfurt has approved a settlement that the Bonn company has worked out – together with the lawyers of thousands of aggrieved small shareholders
The court’s press spokeswoman, Gundula Fehns-Böer, explains the Senate’s decision: “He welcomes the fact that the parties have taken responsibility with this proposal and are trying to find a solution that is fair and correct in terms of content.”
The court therefore recommends all parties involved to accept this settlement. Each of the more than 16,000 plaintiffs will decide on this. Telekom wants to make them an offer by the middle of next year.
The lower court saw errors in the prospectus
The investors were there when the group went public for the third time in 2000 and bought Telekom shares at a special discount for 63.50 euros each. Since then it has gone downhill rapidly, to around 17 euros. The Bonn-based company now wants to reimburse them for the difference between the old and the current market value. Investors can keep dividends already paid along with the shares. Telekom even pays for legal and court costs.
The whole thing should add up to a three-digit million amount; But, says the Group’s chief lawyer, Claudia Junker: “The process has been going on for twenty years and it would continue for another ten years. It is now time we made this very fair offer.”
Especially since the courts have already ruled that Telekom did indeed make mistakes with this IPO – namely with the prospectus: The Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that the risks for small investors in connection with a US stake were not adequately presented.
High acceptance – and blueprint for other procedures?
The settlement offer now available should also be accepted by many small investors, assert their representatives, such as attorney Peter Gundermann: “That means that everything will now come to a good end, a good day for the investors who sued Telekom, a good day for investor protection in Germany. ” Gundermann represents the model plaintiff in this investor model case, which after 20 years could gradually come to a conclusion with the settlement.
“I think that this result must now also serve as a model for the pending model proceedings, especially against Volkswagen and Porsche in the diesel affair,” says shareholder protection officer Klaus Nieding from the German Association for Protection of Securities. “It shows that no one comes out with a winning judgment, but that one compares oneself sensibly.”
Because it cannot be that such proceedings drag on for decades, says Nieding – so long that more and more plaintiffs die in that time. Even in the telecommunications process, some heirs have to make claims, which makes everything even more complicated.
Comparison of the telecom process
Ursula Mayer, HR, November 23, 2021 3:58 p.m.