Evil Knievil: Surprise development in Watchstone litigation

Given that Watchstone (LON:WTG) has paid out 150p it seemed likely to me that WTG would leave any claim against PwC alone. But I am wrong. A writ has been issued for c. £63m. There are 45m ordinaries in issue and the shares, on this PwC news, stand at 70p.

I think it wiser to hold back from passing any opinion as to the outcome of this litigation. Clearly, PwC are behaving as if they want nothing to do with this claim and, on that basis, I presume they’ll ask the Court to strike the action out.

On the other hand one of WTG’s directors is Lord (Michael) Howard, a barrister by upbringing and nobody’s fool. He has presumably cleared this claim against PwC as reasonable. As to whether PwC settle out of Court I have no idea. If it really is the case that PwC have betrayed WTG PwC will surely move heaven and earth to avoid such a conclusion emerging in Court. We’ll see.

On balance I would sooner be a buyer of WTG…