Opening statements are expected to be heard in the High Court on Tuesday in a civil trial involving Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave and two minority shareholders in the business.
The judge, Mr Justice Michael Twomey, will hear five separate legal actions, potentially over nine weeks, after a last-chance effort to mediate the disputes and avoid a costly trial fell apart in Dublin last week.
Mr Cosgrave is suing former Web Summit director David Kelly, who holds a 12 per cent stake in the technology conference business, for alleged breaches of his duties as a director. The complaint, which Mr Cosgrave filed initially in late 2021, relates mainly to Mr Kelly’s role in the establishment of a venture capital fund separate from Web Summit.
Mr Kelly and another former director, Daire Hickey, are also suing Mr Cosgrave, who owns the remaining 81 per cent of the shares, alleging that their rights as minority shareholders in the business were oppressed by Mr Cosgrave.
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Mr Hickey, who owns 7 per cent of the shares in Manders Terrace, the company behind Web Summit, and Mr Kelly are also suing Mr Cosgrave over alleged breaches of a profit-sharing agreement.
All of the allegations against the parties are strongly denied.
It is understood that the shareholder oppression strand of the multifaceted legal row will be heard first over the coming weeks with the first witnesses expected to take the stand next week.
However, the matters may, at any time during the process, be settled privately between the three former friends and business partners.
Millions of euro are at stake for the three men in the bitter legal dispute.
In his grounding affidavit, filed with the court in 2021, Mr Cosgrave said he was seeking damages in the order of €10 million from Mr Kelly related to losses that he allegedly caused Web Summit by creating an investment fund using “proprietary Web Summit resources”.
Mr Hickey and Mr Kelly, meanwhile, want Mr Cosgrave to effectively buy out their stake in the company. In his 2021 grounding affidavit, Mr Hickey claimed that Web Summit could be worth between €200 million and €350 million at the time, valuing his 7 per cent stake holding at somewhere between €14 million and €24.4 million.
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The question of how much their shares are worth formed the substance of the failed mediation talks, which were chaired by London-based barrister Sue Prevezer last week.
However, the process collapsed last Tuesday, ensuring the cases would return to court for trial this week.
Legal bills associated with the cases are also expected to run into the millions, with each of the three men represented by at least two senior counsel. Mr Cosgrave’s team comprises Bernard Dunleavy SC and Derek Shortall SC instructed by solicitors firm Clark Hill.
Mr Hickey is represented by Kelley Smith SC, Eoin McCullough SC and Brian Conroy SC, who are instructed by Dentons. Mr Kelly’s team includes Michael Cush SC and Joe Jeffers SC.
