Firms resolve B&C wrangle

Lovell White Durrant and Dibb Lupton Broomhead advised administrators Ernst & Young in a £200 million settlement of a legal wrangle involving the sale of B&C subsidiary Gartmore Investment Management.

This latest distribution to creditors brings the total pay-out to more than £1 billion since the administration started in June 1990, thought to be the biggest ever pay-out for a UK company in administration.

The two law firms were instructed for the two main companies in the complex B&C structure. Lovells partner Chris Hanson led a team advising B&C Holdings, while Dibbs partner Richard Wright's team advised B&C Group Finance.

The High Court approved the terms of the settlement, which will allow joint administrators Stephen Adamson and Nigel Hamilton, of Ernst & Young, and Peter Phillips, of Buchler Phillips, to pay a further seven pence in the pound to creditors of B&C Holdings, and 12 pence in pound to those of Group Finance.

Adamson says: "This settlement represents a sensible and commercial resolution of the disputed ownership of the funds arising from the sale."

Gartmore had been sold off prior to the B&C collapse.

Stephenson Harwood remains legal adviser to Ernst & Young in actions against

failed subsidiary Atlantic Computers and its former directors. Cameron Markby Hewitt acts for Atlantic administrators, Price Waterhouse.