In This Article:
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Settlement resolves major legal dispute inherited by UBS
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Some creditors also settle decade-old case
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Maputo calls news conference for Monday
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Case hinges on decade-old "tuna bond" scandal
(Adds Nyusi immunity appeal in paragraph 14, details from Court of Appeal in paragraph 16, background paragraphs 6, 11, 17-18)
By Noele Illien and Kirstin Ridley
ZURICH, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse has reached an 11th-hour out-of-court settlement with Mozambique over the decade-old $1.5 billion-plus "tuna bond" scandal, the Swiss bank's new owner UBS said on Sunday, drawing a line under a damaging dispute it inherited.
"The parties have mutually released each other from any liabilities and claims relating to the transactions," UBS said in a statement. "The parties are pleased to have resolved this long-running dispute," it added without giving further details.
Under the deal, struck one day before a three-month London civil trial was due to start, UBS will forgive part of a loan that Credit Suisse made to Mozambique in 2013, representing less than $100 million, said one source familiar with the situation, who declined to be named because the terms are not public.
In Maputo, the Mozambican Attorney General's Office and Ministry of Economy and Finance said they were calling a joint news conference for Monday morning.
The tuna bond case dates back to deals between state-owned Mozambican companies and shipbuilder Privinvest - funded in part by loans and bonds from Credit Suisse and backed by undisclosed Mozambican government guarantees in 2013 and 2014 - ostensibly to develop the fishing industry and for maritime security.
But hundreds of millions of dollars went missing and, when the government debt came to light in 2016, donors such as the International Monetary Fund temporarily halted support, triggering a currency collapse, defaults and financial turmoil.
The settlement included most of the creditors involved in funding a 2013 loan to ProIndicus, a state-owned Mozambican company, UBS said.
DRAWING A LINE
UBS, which took over scandal-scarred Credit Suisse amid turmoil in the global banking sector earlier this year, has pledged to resolve Credit Suisse's legacy legal disputes.
Since completing the mega merger on June 12, it has paid $388 million to U.S. and British regulators over dealings with collapsed private investment firm Archegos Capital Management and settled a dispute with a finance blog.
The latest settlement leaves French shipping mogul Iskandar Safa and his Privinvest group among key remaining defendants in a High Court battle over the funding and maritime deals that have already triggered U.S. and Mozambican criminal proceedings.