| Company: | Royal Bank of Scotland |
| Ticker Symbol: | RBS |
| Class Period: | Jun-26-07 to Jan-19-09 |
| Date Filed: | Feb-9-09 |
| Lead Plaintiff Deadline: | Apr-10-09 |
| Court: | Southern District of New York |
| Allegations: | |
RBS and certain of its officers and directors, and the Company's underwriters - collectively, "defendants" - are charged with including, or allowing the inclusion of, materially false and misleading statements in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with its June 26, 2007 Offering of Series S securities, and the Company's September 18, 2007 Offering of Series T securities, in violation of the Securities Act of 1933. Additionally, RBS and certain of the Company's officers and/or directors are charged with making a series of materially false and misleading statements related to the Company's business and operations in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act").
The allegations in the complaint primarily relate to the Company's acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO ("ABN"), which was commenced in early May 2007 and completed on or about October 17, 2007. On May 29, 2007, RBS issued a release "confirming the terms of their proposed Offer for ABN AMRO" in which "it is intended that RBS will acquire the Global Wholesale Businesses (including the Netherlands but excluding Brazil), LaSalle Bank and International Retail Businesses of ABN AMRO () for a consideration of EUR 27.2 billion." RBS further stated in this release that the "combination of RBS Global Banking & Markets (GBM) and ABN AMRO's Global Wholesale Businesses will create a leading corporate and institutional business with both scale and global reach, and with significantly enhanced growth prospects."
Unbeknownst to investors, the Individual Defendants and RBS first revealed on January 19, 2009 that, as a result of the complete failure of the ABN acquisition, among other undisclosed problems, the Company would be forced to take GBP 15-20 billion in write-downs on goodwill impairments, and suffer losses of GBP 7-8 billion for full year 2008. After the release of this news, the Series S ADS traded on the NYSE from a close of $10.85 on January 16, 2009, to a close of $4.62 on January 20, 2009 (the next trading day) on heavy volume of over 600,000 Series S shares traded - a catastrophic loss for investors who had previously purchased such securities at $25.00 per share in connection with the June 2007 Series S Offering. At the same time, the price of the Company's Series T ADS, as well as its other securities, also declined precipitously.
If you acquired the securities of the defendants during the Class Period you may, no later than the Lead Plaintiff Deadline shown above, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff through counsel of your choice. You may also choose to remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff must meet certain requirements.
