Luxembourg court 'understands opponents of BCCI settlement'

A Luxembourg court - which last week ordered Brian Smouha and the other Touche Ross liquidators of BCCI to seek the approval of unsecured creditors for the proposed Abu Dhabi-backed compensation agreement - believed 'the benefits of the proposed settlement are not sufficiently certain to permit the court to impose it upon the creditors'.

A translation of the judgment obtained by the Independent says Abu Dhabi's dollars 1.7bn contribution 'cannot be regarded as generous', alongside the liabilities. The insufficiency of the contribution was the creditors' 'major and fundamental criticism'.

The court said it understood the concerns of creditors who opposed the plan: 'They believe they have been duped by the management put in place by the majority shareholders (the Abu Dhabi authorities), if not by the majority shareholders themselves; they are concerned they are giving up too cheaply rights of action against the majority shareholders'.