Barclays says financier Amanda Staveley's $1bn lawsuit is misconceived

Barclays has described a $1bn (£700m; €890m) lawsuit filed by a financier over the bank's cash-raising during the height of the global financial crisis as "fundamentally misconceived".

The claim, brought by British financier Amanda Staveley on behalf of her private equity firm PCP Capital Partners, relates to dealings between Barclays and Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors in 2008.

Barclays received a reported £7bn cash injection from the Middle East during the height of the financial crisis. It allowed the lender to avoid being semi-nationalised along with Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.

Staveley has alleged that PCP, which advised Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the deal, was not paid fees it was promised as a prospective investor in Barclays.

However, the bank denied it made "representations which were false" in court documents seen by the Guardian newspaper.

"The claim is fundamentally misconceived. Barclays' understanding at all material times was that PCP... was acting on behalf of Sheikh Mansour, not on its own behalf," it reportedly says.

"In any event the representations were not made as alleged, and PCP... is unable to establish that it suffered any loss as a result of the alleged representations."

SFO probe

The lawsuit comes amid a probe by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over alleged undisclosed payments made by Barclays to Qatari investors during the financial crisis.

PCP has alleged that it received an "express and implied agreement", both orally and in writing from Barclays staff, it would received the same fees as the Qatari investors, but the bank denies this.

"Barclays intended and expected that in return for the ASA (advisory services agreement) fee it would receive valuable services," it was quoted as stating in the court documents by the Reuters agency.

"In so far as Barclays made any representations, Barclays denies that it made those representations dishonestly or recklessly."