Investors Get Initial OK For $95M Televisa Settlement
Investors Get Initial OK For $95M Televisa Settlement
Written By: Emillie Ruscoe; Additional reporting by Jessica Corso; Editing by Alyssa Miller
Re-posting from Law360 (April 21, 2023, 2:11 PM EDT) — Investors in Mexican television giant Grupo Televisa SAB who claim they were hurt after the company bribed a FIFA official saw their proposed $95 million settlement deal get a green light Thursday from a Manhattan federal judge.
In a filing adopting language proposed by the lead plaintiff in the consolidated action, an institutional investor, U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton granted preliminary approval to the settlement deal and set an August date for a fairness hearing.
The order states that Judge Stanton reviewed the settlement agreement and found its terms “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”
The investors, who are represented by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, requested approval for the settlement deal in February, about three months after the company announced the proposed deal to its investors.
In November, the company said it anticipated that its insurance policies would cover the lion’s share of the settlement sum, with the company itself contributing about $21.5 million to the settlement.
The company has maintained that the investor allegations are meritless, but told shareholders in November that “eliminating the distraction, expense and risk of continued litigation is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.”
The investors sought preliminary approval of the settlement deal in lieu of filing a response to the company’s summary judgment bid in the action, telling Judge Stanton that they reached the deal before they finished their response brief.
At the time, the investors noted that their counsel anticipated asking for up to 30% of the settlement fund and as much as $3.5 million to reimburse their litigation expenses.
The proposed class includes those who became owners of American Depositary Receipts for Televisa shares between April 2013 and November 2017, the motion for preliminary approval states.
The settlement deal would resolve claims that Televisa investors were hurt after trading prices for the company’s ADRs fell following revelations about the FIFA bribe.
The investor allegations were filed after the alleged recipient of the bribe, a former chairman of an Argentinian sports marketing company, testified that he’d gotten $7.25 million from Televisa to secure rights to broadcast a tournament.
That testimony was given in a sprawling corruption case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice centering on FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, and the official pled guilty to charges he faced in that action in 2015.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
The investors are represented by David Boies, Alex Boies, David Barrett, Adam Shaw, John Zach, Lauren Goldman, Valecia Battle, Waleska Suero Garcia, Alex Law, Cameron Miller and Matthew Schwartz of Boies Schiller.
Grupo Televisa is represented by Herbert Wachtell, Adebola Olofin, Ben Germana, David Anders, Daniel Harper, Benjamin Levander and David Kirk of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.
The case is In re Grupo Televisa Securities Litigation, case number 1:18-cv-01979, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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