Cantor Fitzgerald & Co (claimant/appellant) v Yes Bank Limited (defendant/respondent)
Wednesday 12 June 2024
By an Appellant’s Notice filed on 8 June 2023, the Appellant appeals the Order of Mr Justice Bright, dated, 18 May 2023, sitting in the Commercial Court.
The judgment followed the trial of the claim of the Claimant (“Cantor”) against the Defendant (“YES Bank”) arising from Cantor’s efforts to raise finance for YES Bank in late 2019 to early 2020.
Cantor is a US broker-dealer, investment bank and financial advisor, based in New York. YES Bank is an Indian bank, based in Mumbai.
In 2019, YES Bank was undergoing severe financial problems, which were widely reported. It urgently needed to attract additional capital investment. Cantor was engaged to assist (as were various other advisors/institutions).
The dispute arose under an Engagement Letter dated 17 December 2019 and signed on 18 December 2019 (as amended on 24 February 2020), which constituted the contract between Cantor and YES Bank.
Cantor claimed to be entitled to a fee under the Engagement Letter, being 2% (the agreed fee rate) of investments made by three parties defined in the Engagement Letter (as amended) as “Investors”. The main issue between the parties on this claim concerned the construction of a few words in one sentence of one clause of the Engagement Letter.
View hearing: