The two camps may have settled over the sale of Quindell’s professional services division (PSD) half a decade ago to S&G, but that didn’t stop Watchstone from going after accounting giant PwC through a new High Court claim. As reported by Insurance Business in 2019, PwC is accused of leaking confidential information that purportedly impacted the PSD transaction.
The allegation was part of Watchstone’s counterclaim against S&G, which was dropped as part of their settlement last October. Now a separate claim has been filed and served against PwC, which was Quindell’s restructuring and technical accounting adviser.
In a new release, Watchstone noted: “The claim against PwC is for damages or equitable compensation of £63 million plus exemplary damages, equitable compensation, interest, and costs. Watchstone’s claim against PwC is for breach of contract and/or breach of confidence and/or breach of fiduciary duty and/or unlawful means conspiracy.”
Watchstone alleges that, without its knowledge, a back-channel was formed between corporate finance adviser Greenhill & Co and PwC during the negotiation period for the PSD deal – with the latter’s supposed unlawful disclosure of confidential data to the buyer’s camp resulting, according to Watchstone, in an unfair advantage for the acquiring party and eventually a significant loss for the seller.
The company, specialties of which include technology for the insurance industry, went on to state: “Watchstone did not discover (and was not told of) the various breaches by PwC referred to above, and was therefore unaware that its confidential information had been provided to Greenhill and S&G until it received third party disclosure from Greenhill in the proceedings with S&G on July 19, 2019…”
Watchstone, meanwhile, clarified that the audit firm had no role in respect of the PSD disposal. It said PwC was paid more than £5 million in fees in 2014 and 2015 for its independent review into, among other things, Quindell’s group accounting policies and cash generation.
