Huge settlements to continue in US
While the $6.1bn settlement in the WorldCom case set a new record, it is expected that large settlements will persist in the US for several years.
A report by Nera Economic, reports the Financial Times, says the Enron case might exceed the WorldCom settlement, but even excluding these cases 2005 is likely to mark new highs for settlements because of the scale of the losses suffered by investors in the 2000-2002 bear market. Nera says the average settlement value in the first six months of 2005 was $25.8m, compared with $23.5m in 2002, the last record breaking year. The authors of Nera\'s report calculate that the average public company faces a 2% probability each year that investors will bring a class action lawsuit against it. Full report in the Financial Times