Investec Bank: UK traders lose court bid for bonuses

TWO FORMER Investec Bank derivatives traders have lost a court fight over £6.76 million (R121m) in bonuses they said they were owed after their ex-employer had failed to honour an unwritten agreement. UK High Court Judge George Leggatt said that while the pair were “decent and highly talented individuals”, they “had no right to be paid any bonus for the 2010/11” financial year. Andrew Brogden and Robert Reid, the ex-head and deputy head, respectively, of the bank’s structured equity derivatives desk, said at a trial last month that they had agreed to join Investec on the understanding that their bonuses would be calculated based on an “economic value added” formula and it was orally agreed that an institutional market rate would be used, rather than a discretionary component. “I doubt there are many outside the world in which the claimants operate who would think they were under-rewarded by Investec,” Judge Leggatt said in his ruling. He denied the pair permission to appeal. “This was a baseless claim, and an unwarranted attack on our institution,” said David Van Der Walt, the chief executive of Investec’s London unit. Doyle Clayton Solicitors, which represented Brogden and Reid, did not respond to a request for comment. The bank testified it had paid bonuses of £150 000 to Brogden and £100 000 to Reid in June 2011. – Bloomberg