High Court approves Watchstone's capital reduction plans

The High Court of Justice in England and Wales has approved Watchstone Group’s planned capital reduction and return of capital to its shareholders.

The insurance technology group, formerly known as Quindell, said that as planned, its shares will remain temporarily suspended until the market open on Monday 21 December when she share consolidation will occur.

Watchstone announced in early November that it planned to return £415m to shareholders this month, following the sale of its professional services division.

The company will repay 90p per share and a further 10p per share in cash following the anticipated release at the end of 2016 of the £50m warranty escrow put in place as part of the disposal.

Earlier this week, Watchstone said it had been hit with a £9.4m ‘class action’ legal claim filed by a group of 342 disgruntled shareholders.

The claim was filed under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the company said, without giving further details.

Watchstone said it was not yet "in a position to verify the assertions in the letter of claim" but that the letter of claim "details the expected value of the potential claims against the company to be approximately £9.4m".