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Court of Chancery Clarifies Compounding Interest in Appraisal Suit per DGCL Section 262(h)

By Francis G.X. Pileggi

In Re: Sunbelt Beverage Corp. S'holder Litig., Cons. No. 16089-CC (Feb. 15, 2010), read letter ruling denying motion for reconsideration here. Read revised opinion here.

 In this short letter ruling, the Court denies a Motion for Reconsideration by the defendants of a decision that was previously summarized on this blog here. In sum, the Court rejected the argument that it misapprehended a value in the discount of cash flow analysis of an expert that was referenced in the original opinion, related to beta values.

The Court also rejected an argument that it did not apply the correct statutory interest rate applicable in an appraisal case. Specifically, the Court referred to Section 262(h) of Title 8 of the Delaware Code for the statutory legal rate that applies, as supported by Section 2301 of Title 6 of the Delaware Code. The Court noted that the 2007 amendment to Section 262(h) codified an approach the Court of Chancery has long had the authority to use, to award interest at a rate of 5% above the Federal Reserve Discount Rate.

Nonetheless, the Court did issue a revised opinion to clarify that the interest should be compounded quarterly, but denied a request to make any other changes to the original opinion. The revised opinion issued on February 15, 2001 is available here.
 

Full post as published by Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).