International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has announced a $1.4 billion (about £875,000) global settlement agreement has been reached for the liquidation of fund manager MF Global Inc.
The agreement has been reach between Richard Heis, Mike Pink and Richard Fleming, the Joint Special Administrators of MF Global UK Limited, and James W. Giddens, Trustee for the SIPA liquidation of MF Global Inc.

Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP says that the global settlement agreement will benefit all clients and creditors of MF Global UK Limited, MF Global Inc. and MF Global Holdings Limited by providing certainty, avoiding the time and monetary cost of litigation and allowing distributions to be made more quickly.
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Mr Giddens filed a motion with the US Bankruptcy Court before Honourable Judge Martin Glenn, seeking entry of an order approving a global settlement agreement (subject to certain conditions) to resolve all claims between the two estates, including the rule 30.7 of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission client asset litigation currently before Mr Justice David Richards in the High Court of England and Wales. Further, MF Global Holdings Limited has agreed to its claims in the estate of, and to discontinue its litigation against, MF Global UK Limited.

The creditors' committee of MF Global UK Limited was informed of developments throughout the process and welcomed the co-operation between the estates.

Richard Heis, a joint administrator of MF Global UK Ltd, said: "This is an historic agreement and it is a credit to all the parties involved who worked diligently to arrive at such a significant settlement in such a short time period."

"Clearing these hurdles will allow us to move quickly to get money in agreed claimants' pockets at the earliest opportunity. Furthermore, I have appreciated the global team at Weil, their dedication and the depth of experience they have brought to this unique process."

Adam Plainer, head of the London Restructuring team at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, said, "Our team worked with the Joint Special Administrators, MF Global Inc. and MF Global Holdings Limited to agree on a global settlement that would release funds for distribution in both the client and creditor estates of MF Global UK Limited and would also remove the costly burden of high-value litigation from the estate.

"Achieving such a settlement in an insolvency of this size and complexity in only fifteen months is a testament to the practical and commercial approach of the Joint Special Administrators in seeking solutions rather than problems."