Rathbone Brothers agrees to take 15 mln stg legal case hit

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - UK wealth manager Rathbone Brothers said on Thursday it had reached a conditional agreement in a legal case that will see it pay 15 million pounds ($25.54 million).

The company said it expects to report the amount as an exceptional cost in its full-year results once the deal has been confirmed by the court.

The case involved a former director, an employee of a former subsidiary and others, the company said, adding it had also agreed to settle associated legal proceedings against certain of its civil liability insurers.

The terms of settlement were confidential, it added.

"Whilst we believe that the underlying Jersey claim would eventually prove unsuccessful and that effective insurance cover would be confirmed following the recent Appeal Court hearing, we have been mindful that litigation is never without risk and that we could face several more years of very substantial legal expense, having already incurred legal costs of approximately 5 million pounds," said Rathbone's Chief Executive Philip Howell.

"We have therefore concluded that joining a settlement would be in the best commercial interests of the company, allowing our senior management team to apply its full focus to executing our strategic plans." ($1 = 0.5874 British Pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Nishant Kumar)