Lloyds, property entrepreneur, settle $1.64 billion London dispute

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds and a property entrepreneur, who sued the bank for 1.3 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) over allegations of Libor interest rate manipulation and the failure of two real estate firms, have called off a London trial, Lloyds said on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Lloyds and Ardeshir Naghshineh, whose Targetfollow property group once owned the landmark Centre Point tower in central London, told the High Court on Monday they had reached an agreement in principle on the long-running dispute.

"Mr Naghshineh has withdrawn his claim and has discontinued these proceedings," a Lloyds spokesperson said. "The parties will not be commenting further."

A spokesperson for Naghshineh was not immediately able to comment.

Naghshineh had been seeking compensation after two Targetfollow businesses went into administration in 2010. He alleged his companies would not have taken out loans, alongside interest rate derivative products, had they known about alleged Libor (London interbank offered rate) manipulation.

Lloyds had alleged that the claim had no merit and that both parties had reached a settlement more than a decade ago over banking products at the centre of the claim.

Libor, designed to represent the cost of borrowing between banks that set a benchmark for trillions of loans and contracts globally, was phased out in 2021 after a rigging scandal prompted global regulators to fine some of the world's biggest banks billions of dollars.

Lloyds in 2014 paid fines totalling $370 million for its part in the scandal and for attempting to manipulate fees for a government lending scheme to help banks.

($1 = 0.7977 pounds)

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Mark Potter)