Settlement with UBS was approved

The extrajudicial agreement between Mozambique and the financial group UBS on the “hidden debts” case in the British courts was approved by the Council of Ministers in June, the Mozambique Government Gazette Boletim da República dated 14 September indicates. The Supplement to the Boletim da República dated September 14, consulted on Monday by Lusa, ratifies the ‘Transaction Agreement’ signed between the Republic of Mozambique, the state-owned company Proindicus, the Credit Suisse Group and other litigants in accordance with a resolution approved by the Council of Ministers [Cabinet] on June 6th.

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“The purpose of the Transaction Agreement is the global and definitive resolution of the dispute between the parties referred to in the previous article and the total and reciprocal waiver of their claims, in the dispute, in the case of the disputing parties, and outside of it, in the case of the non-litigating parties, regarding responsibilities in financing Proindicus,” the document states. 

In addition to Credit Suisse, currently part of the UBS financial group, Moza Banco, United Bank for Africa, investment funds VR Global Partners and Farallon Capital, as well as Banco Internacional de Moçambique, Banco Comercial de Investimentos and other institutions signed the agreement. However, the shipping group Privinvest, the Russian bank VTB and Banco Comercial Português (BCP) were specifically omitted from the agreement. “This deal appears to have been in the works and cooked up [over] some time,” Privinvest lawyer Duncan Mathews told the London High Court in London on Monday.

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Sunday’s settlement, struck one day before a blockbuster London trial was due to begin, prompted scores of lawyers representing Mozambique, Credit Suisse, Privinvest, three former Credit Suisse bankers, creditors and others, to gather in the High Court in London to establish how the trial should now proceed. Judge Robin Knowles said there was an imperative to ensure the three-month trial o “complicated and interwoven multi-party case” was fair to all parties and postponed the opening of the trial to at least Oct. 16. Duncan Matthews, for Privinvest, told the court that the settlement had created a “significant shift” in the burden on his clients and that they should have time to work out which claims and cross-claims remained on the table. He also noted that it was “not quite clear” whether Mozambique’s claims against three former Credit Suisse bankers had also been settled or put on hold.

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The trial is the culmination of almost four years of litigation in the British courts, to which Mozambique appealed, alleging bribery, conspiracy to harm by unlawful means and dishonest assistance to write off debts and claim financial compensation worth millions of dollars.