Omni Bridgeway to fund claims against UBS in connection with Folli Follie bond offering
This is a bondholder action for current and past Bondholders of the CHF 150 million 3.25% 2017-2021 bonds issued by FF Group Finance Luxembourg II SA and guaranteed by Folli Follie Commercial Manufacturing and Technical SA (ISIN CH0385518052) (the “Bondholder(s)” and the “Folli Follie Bonds” respectively).
Background
Following the October 2017 bond issue, hedge fund Quintessential Capital Management published a report in May 2018 summarising its findings concerning Folli Follie’s business. The report concluded Folli Follie had inflated financial and other business figures in its financial statements and other publications, overstating its points-of-sale network, revenues and cash reserves.
Although disputed by Folli Follie, global turnaround advisers, Alvarez & Marsal, reported in September 2018 that the discrepancies between Folli Follie’s 2017 figures and reality were massive and exceeded the worst expectations. The price of the bonds have fallen significantly and presently trades at approximately 8% of the issue price.
About the proposed action
Omni Bridgeway is an established, global litigation funder which already has a litigation funding arrangement in place with a group of Bondholders holding Folli Follie Bonds with a face value in excess of CHF 23 million for the purposes of bringing an action before the Swiss courts against UBS AG (the "Defendant") on the basis of their role as bookrunners for the offering of the Folli Follie Bonds.
Interested present or past Bondholders will assign their claims to CH0385518052 - Bonds Claims Enforcement GmbH (the "SPV"), an entity which has been set-up to facilitate the efficient management of the litigation process. The SPV currently has three directors, two of which are Bondholders who have already subscribed to the existing group action. It is envisioned that there will be two additional directors appointed from Bondholders who sign up to the subsequent group action. The SPV will be the only claimant to the litigation and will decide on the litigation strategy, not the individual Bondholders. As such, after subscribing to the subsequent group action, save for the directors, it is expected that no active involvement in the litigation will be required from the Bondholders.
Current stage of case
Closed for sign up. If you have any questions, please contact the Omni Bridgeway Client Liaison Team by email on [email protected].