Lloyds reaches agreement in principle over $1.64 billion London claim

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) -Lloyds has reached an "agreement in principle" with a property entrepreneur over a 1.3 billion pound ($1.64 billion)lawsuit that turned on allegations the bank manipulated Libor interest rates and the failure of two real estate firms.

Lawyers for Lloyds and Ardeshir Naghshineh, whose Targetfollow property businesses once owned the landmark Centre Point tower in central London, told London's High Court on Monday that the terms of the deal had yet to be documented.

A spokesperson for Naghshineh declined to comment and a Lloyds spokesperson did not have an immediate comment. But the start of the civil trial, due to begin on Monday, was postponed to Tuesday pending any formal settlement agreement.

Naghshineh had been seeking compensation after two Targetfollow businesses went into administration in 2010. He alleged his companies would not have taken out loans, alongside interest rate derivative products, had they known about alleged Libor (London interbank offered rate) manipulation.

Libor, designed to represent the cost of borrowing between banks that set a benchmark for trillions of loans and contracts globally, was phased out in 2021 after a rigging scandal prompted global regulators to fine some of the world's biggest banks billions of dollars.

Lloyds in 2014 paid fines totalling $370 million for its part in the scandal and for attempting to manipulate fees for a government lending scheme to help banks.

($1 = 0.7950 pounds)

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, Editing by Louise Heavens)