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Abonner The Public Employees' Retirement Association of Colorado

The Public Employees' Retirement Association of Colorado

The Public Employees' Retirement Association of Colorado Announces Settlement of Royal Ahold N.V. Securities Litigation

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 28 (ots/PRNewswire)

- Royal Ahold N.V. to Pay US$1.1 Billion in a Settlement of All
Claims  Against Royal Ahold N.V. and All Defendants Other Than
Deloitte & Touche  Entities
Royal Ahold N.V. ("Ahold") has agreed to pay a total of US$1.1
billion to settle all securities law claims asserted against Ahold
and certain other defendants in the securities litigation pending in
the United States District Court for the District of Maryland,
Gregory W. Smith, General Counsel of Lead Plaintiff, the Public
Employees' Retirement Association ("Colorado PERA") announced today.
The settlement resolves all securities law claims against Ahold, and
all other defendants, other than Deloitte & Touche entities. The
settlement is global in nature and is designed to provide a recovery
to all persons who purchased Ahold common stock and/or American
Depository Receipts from July 30, 1999 through February 23, 2003,
regardless of where such persons live or purchased their Ahold
shares.
"This settlement is an extraordinary recovery for Ahold
shareholders, and a good result for the Company. We are extremely
pleased that the settlement will provide a recovery for persons in
the United States as well as in Europe and in other areas outside the
United States. The result that we have achieved in this litigation
underscores the importance of having institutional investors like
Colorado PERA lead securities class actions while working
side-by-side with their selected Lead Counsel, Entwistle & Cappucci
LLP. We look forward to presenting the settlement to the Court for
the Court's consideration and approval," said Gregory W. Smith,
Colorado PERA's General Counsel.
Lead Plaintiffs will seek the Court's preliminary approval of the
settlement in January 2006. If the Court grants preliminary approval,
Lead Plaintiffs will disseminate a Court-approved form of notice to
all persons who purchased Ahold common stock and/or American
Depository Receipts from July 30, 1999 through February 23, 2003 (the
"Class"), regardless of where such persons live or purchased their
Ahold shares. The notice documents approved by the Court and sent to
class members will include all documents that must be reviewed and
completed by persons who wish to participate in the settlement. These
documents will also be available at
www.royalaholdsecuritieslitigation.com, and at Lead Counsel's
website, www.entwistle-law.com.
Ahold will fund two-thirds of the US$1.1 billon settlement amount
upon  the Court's preliminary approval of the settlement, and Ahold
will fund the remaining one-third of the settlement amount within six
months of the Court's final approval of the settlement. Interest will
be earned on the settlement proceeds immediately upon funding. Lead
Plaintiffs anticipate obtaining the Court's final approval of the
settlement approximately one hundred and twenty (120) days after the
Court's preliminary approval of the settlement. Distributions of the
settlement amount will be made pursuant to a Court-approved plan of
allocation of settlement proceeds. The amount of the settlement fund
available for distribution will exclude fees, costs, and expenses
incurred in prosecuting this litigation. Distributions to members of
the Class will be made approximately 12 months after the Court's
final approval of the settlement.
Colorado PERA and Generic Trading of Philadelphia, LLC are the
Court-appointed Lead Plaintiffs in the consolidated securities class
action, In re Royal Ahold N.V. Securities & ERISA Litigation, which
is pending before Judge Catherine C. Blake in federal court in
Maryland. This settlement was arrived at after extensive negotiation
between the parties under the supervision of retired United States
District Court Judge, Nicholas Politan.
Colorado PERA and the investor class are represented by the law
firm of Entwistle & Cappucci, LLP, which was appointed as Lead
Counsel by Judge Blake in November 2003. Colorado PERA's role as lead
plaintiff was endorsed by the District of Columbia Retirement Board,
the City of Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement, the State
Retirement and Pension System of Maryland, the Office of the Maryland
Attorney General, and the State Universities Retirement System of
Illinois.
If you wish to receive a direct mailing (or e-mail) of the
materials needed to make a claim, please e-mail your contact
information to Lead Counsel at:  Royalaholdclaims@entwistle-law.com.
Please direct all such inquiries to Lead Counsel.
BACKGROUND
The first securities class action lawsuit against Ahold was filed
in  February 2003. On February 24, 2003, Ahold announced that it had
improperly  inflated its earnings by approximately $500 million
dollars. Subsequent  disclosures revealed that Ahold's publicly
reported earnings for previous  years had been overstated by more
than $1 billion and that Ahold's prior  revenues had been overstated
by more than US$24 billion.
Following a June 18, 2003 transfer from the Judicial Panel on
Multidistrict Litigation, the securities class actions against Ahold
were consolidated before the Honorable Catherine C. Blake in the
United States District Court for the District of Maryland on November
4, 2003. Judge Blake also appointed Colorado PERA and Generic Trading
of Philadelphia LLC as Lead Plaintiffs to prosecute the litigation on
behalf of all members of the class. Also at this time, Entwistle &
Cappucci LLP was appointed as Lead Counsel.
On February 17, 2002, Lead Plaintiffs filed their Consolidated
Amended Securities Class Action Complaint. The Complaint alleged
claims against Ahold and Ahold USA, Inc., Ahold USA Holdings, Inc.,
U.S. Foodservice, Inc., Cees Van der Hoeven, Michiel Meurs, Henny de
Ruiter, Cor Boonstra, James L. Miller, Mark Kaiser, Michael Resnick,
Tim Lee, Robert G. Tobin, William J. Grize, Roland Fahlin, Jan G.
Andreae, ABN AMRO Rothschild, Goldman Sachs International, Merrill
Lynch International, ING Bank N.V., Rabo Securities N.V., and Kempen
& Co. N.V. based upon the matters that Ahold first announced on
February 24, 2003.
The Court largely denied the defendants' motions to dismiss the
Complaint in December 2004. Among other things, the Court rejected
Ahold's argument that the Court could not hear the claims of
non-United States investors who purchased their Ahold shares on
securities exchanges located outside the United States. As of this
date, Lead Counsel were reviewing million pages of documents that the
Court ordered Ahold to produce at an early stage based upon a motion
that Lead Plaintiffs filed in December 2003.
Document discovery in the class action has been proceeding since
May 2004, and Lead Plaintiffs have conducted broader discovery since
the Court's December 2004 decision on defendants' motions to dismiss
the Complaint. The Court had ordered a trial of the Class's claims to
proceed in May 2007.
Colorado PERA has been active in the securities litigation arena,
fulfilling the PERA Board of Trustees' commitment to corporate
governance reforms and enforcement of shareholder rights. Colorado
PERA has been active in seeking increased corporate transparency
through participation in the Council of Institutional Investors
("CII"), and prior to the Ahold case, was awarded one of the largest
settlements in securities litigation history against Oxford Health
Plans.
Colorado PERA provides retirement and other benefits to 375,000
current and former employees of over 400 government and public
entities in the state of Colorado. Colorado PERA is the 25th largest
public pension plan in the U.S. with assets of US$33.6 billion.

Contact:

Anne Louise van Lynden van Sandenburg, Investor Voice, Mob:
+31-(0)-6-543-155-49,
avanlynden@investorvoice.com