Fund manager Perpetual Ltd says it may face further court action after its opponents moved to appeal a recent UK court decision that could ultimately affect billions of dollars.
Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd won a Court of Appeal decision in London on Friday (local time) that sought $125 million frozen from Mahogany Capital noteholders since the collapse of Lehman Brothers financial-services firm last year.
The decision could act as a precedent to eventually unlock up to $12.5 billion.
Perpetual, wholly owned by the Australian-listed Perpetual Ltd, took the court action because it is trustee for $A125 million of notes issued by Mahogany Capital Ltd to retail investors in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The UK Court of Appeal ruled the Mahogany noteholders have priority over Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc (LBSF) in relation to the collateral.
LBSF had argued they should have priority for the funds.
Group executive of the corporate trust division at Perpetual, Chris Green told AAP LBSF had sought leave to appeal the most recent decision to the Supreme Court.
"The Court of Appeal are going to consider that this week," he said.
He said huge amounts of money could ultimately be at stake.
"Mahogany invested in a UK program that has about $12.5 billion in these types of deals and we are the first to go into litigation," Mr Green said.
"This will be a precedent for a lot of those deals.
Lawyers for Perpetual, Henry Davis York, said market participants should take some comfort from the latest decision, which goes a long way to settling the law.
In September last year the 158-year-old Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filed for bankruptcy in the USA, making it the largest company ever forced to take such action in that country.
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