Strand founder strikes back at legal claim over Sibir fees
ADVISERS acting for Strand Partners founder and former chairman Richard Fenhalls have hit back at claims he owes the firm a share of the £7.6m in advisory fees paid to him last year by oil firm Sibir Energy.
Strand Partners – now named Strand Hanson – has initiated legal proceedings against Fenhalls to try and reclaim a proportion of the fees, claiming he was still with the company when the contract with Sibir was signed.
But Fenhalls insists that his new company began a three-year assignment with Sibir after he and Strand parted company in April 2009.
In the end, Sibir was sold to Russian energy giant Gazprom in May, though a spokesman for Fenhalls said that the $11.7m (£7.6m) worth of fees paid to him over the two months included $5m as an early termination payment.
“Sibir shareholders were jubilant at the 500p a share deal that Fenhalls negotiated with Gazprom, given that only a few months earlier, the shares had been worth 50p,” the spokesman added.
“They won’t begrudge his new company a single penny. The costs of employing an investment bank or an accountancy firm would have been much more, and with less likelihood of success.”
Read more: Strand Hanson in legal claim over £7.6m fee paid to firm’s founder