The CEO and founder of Danish neobank Lunar said he has “confidence” that an appeal against a court decision which ruled against the bank in a dispute with shareholders of a Norwegian bank it tried to buy will be successful.
In February this year, an Oslo District Court ruled against Lunar in its dispute with the shareholders of a Norwegian bank called Instabank.
The Danish challenger, which has around 850,000 customers, had offered €132 million in March 2022 to buy Instabank, as it looked to increase its footprint in Norway.
However, the deal did not go through amid a dispute relating to capital requirements for the deal to go through.
The district court found that Lunar had breached the transaction agreement and was liable for the seller's loss.
Luna disagreed with the decision.
In light of the decision, the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway tightened Lunar’s on-going capital requirements, which is linked to its latest funding round announced this week.
Lunar has appealed the court's decision.
Ken Villum Klausen said:
“Up to half of all cases are being turned over in the high court in Norway and we have had multiple second legal opinions now claiming that we also have more than 50 % chance of winning in the appeal. The initial verdict is difficult to understand.”
Asked whether he was confident the decision would be overturned, he said:
"We are as confident as we can get. We have insight into the description of the ruling and to the angles of it, which gives us confidence that we can provide arguments why that is not the case."
The Danish bank, which has just published its annual report, says it expects to hit a quarterly profit this year.
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