Corporate & Securities Law

Converium class includes SWX, NYSE

By Werner R. Kranenburg

The post I wrote on 16 January 2007 about Converium Reinsurance Co being partially granted and partially denied its motion to dismiss the class action pending against it following its IPO never did find its way here. It was in the earliest days of WV&Z and on the basis of the case I actually went on a tangent about disclosure and the Transparancy Directive and never did finish the post properly. So, nudged by SLW (this post, with thanks), some of that material, the important stuff on the case itself, does find its way here now in updated form. (I’ll spare you the rest.)

In her December 2006 opinion (via New York Law Journal), SDNY Judge Denise Cote dismissed the claims against former parent Zurich Financial Services and its underwriters UBS AG and Merrill Lynch International and certain claims against Converium Holding AG and three Converium officers, but not all. Even so, back then it was presented as if it was a dismissal (New York Law Journal, AFX News). (Converium was part of Zurich Financial Services before being spun off; it’s now known as SCOR Holding (Switzerland) AG, SWX: CHRN; NYSE: CHR) Far from that being the end, litigation of course continued on the basis of what was left, the Securities Act claims and the remaining Exchange Act claims. (Also see the consolidated amended complaint, September 2005.)

Fast forward a good year and Judge Cote has partially granted and partially denied a motion to certify the class in the action. (SLW has the March 2008 opinion.) She specifically denies ‘to include foreign investors who purchased shares on a foreign exchange’ (WV&Z archives) but includes ‘United States residents who purchased Converium shares on the SWX [and] any person who purchased Converium ADSs on the NYSE’. See the opinion from page 7 for the discussion on subject matter jurisdiction over non-US purchasers on the Swiss exchange in this case.

Notably, the certification denies Co-Lead Plaintiff Avalon Holdings Inc., an institutional investor based in Greece, being a member of the class. In response to SLW’s final observation then, WV&Z points to Avalon as most likely to lead that charge.

What’s more: Also see Prof Samuel P. Baumgartner’s 2007 paper Class Actions and Group Litigation in Switzerland.

Full post as published by With Vigour and Zeal on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).