London-listed private equity firm Trinity Capital Plc. has stated that the lawsuits filed against the company by German investor SachsenFonds Holdings GmbH have been dismissed. SachsenFonds had started a $168 million (€116 million) claims process against Trinity Capital in the Supreme Court of Mauritius last year.
“The company is pleased to announce that the Mauritius court has dismissed the Immobilien lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds and has awarded the company the costs of defending the lawsuit,” Trinity Capital said in a statement to the Alternate Investment Market.
The claims were made by SachsenFonds entities Immobilien Development Indien I GmbH & Co. KG and Immobilien Development Indien II GmbH & Co. KG in March, 2010, in connection with their investments in various real estate development projects in India. In June, 2010, Trinity Capital moved to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds.
In January, 2010, SachsenFonds had claimed as much as €116 million, alleging that Trinity and the investment managers ‘benefited’ from the transactions for sale of Trinity’s assets to its own funds over the last two-three years. Trinity had entered into a number of transactions with SachsenFonds to divest its stakes in various portfolio companies in 2007 and 2008.
This development comes after Trinity Capital managed to reach a settlement in a more-than-a-year-long lawsuit against its former advisors in February this year. The AIM-listed real estate fund, focused on India, reached a settlement with its former fund managers Trikona Advisers Ltd where both parties withdrew claims and Trinity Capital agreed to make payments to Trikona which were not disclosed.
Last year, Trinity (earlier known as Trikona Trinity Capital) had appointed Ajay Piramal Group-promoted Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt Ltd as its India investment manager, in place of Trikona Advisors. The fund had exited its investment companies like Phoenix Mills, Pipavav Shipyard, IL&FS Transportation Networks, Kapstone Constructions and DB Hospitality since 2009.
