WASHINGTON: British oil giant BP won approval from a US federal judge of a $7.8bn settlement with people and businesses who lost money and property due to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Although the deal addresses the bulk of private claims over the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the oil spill that resulted from its explosion, it does not affect an anticipated tens of billions of dollars in fines and claims from the US government and impacted coastal states and local governments.
Nor does it resolve suits filed by shareholders or others seeking compensation because of a drilling moratorium imposed after the worst environmental disaster in US history. The incident also killed 11 workers.
US District Judge Carl Barbier gave his final approval to the settlement in a 125-page ruling. He had preliminarily approved the accord in May.
“None of the objections, whether filed on the objections docket or elsewhere, have shown the settlement to be anything other than fair, reasonable and adequate,” Barbier wrote.
He said the settlement agreement “provides compensation to class members that appears sufficient” to cover their losses from the spill.
Both BP and the plaintiff’s attorneys welcomed the approval of a deal that would settle nearly 100,000 claims from fishermen and others affected by the disaster.
BP hailed the decision, saying it resolved “the substantial majority of legitimate economic loss and property damage claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon accident.”
Sloane Robinson hit by emerging market slowdown
LONDON: The slowdown in emerging markets is hitting hedge fund Sloane Robinson hard, highlighting how, even as the industry attracts investors, managers can quickly fall from grace if they fail to perform.
The London-based stock-picker — one of the capital’s oldest managers and once among its 10 biggest — has seen assets under management slide to around $2.5bn, down more than four-fifths from a 2008 high of $15.1bn.
Assets in the firm’s flagship emerging markets fund — run by chief investment officer Richard Chenevix-Trenc — have fallen to around $700m, down from $1.8bn at the end of 2011, and investors are bracing for a second consecutive year of losses.
“...Emerging market investment, as in so much of the world, has become about a search for niches of growth, where businesses can find room to develop irrespective of the slowing economies and still meet or exceed the expectations currently baked into prices,” he wrote in a client letter.
The fund is down 1.7 percent to November 30, the letter shows. Last year it lost 17.2 percent. In 2010 made just 2.7 percent.
Agencies
