Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri & Energy Plus Limited [2023] EWHC 2979
A decision concerning the question as to when property purchased in the name of a private company owned (directly or through nominees) by its funder will be owned beneficially by the funder, rather than the company whose shares are owned beneficially by the funder. The question arose in the context of an application for a charging order over properties to secure a judgment debt of over £48 million.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, instructed by Farrer & Co LLP, acted for the Respondent, Energy Plus Limited.
Master Dagnall’s judgment, which was handed down on 23 November 2023, can be read here.
The judgment discusses the application of the presumption of a resulting trust and the status of Arab Investment Syndicate Limited v Hiseman (CA unreported 15 February 1994), Stockholm v Garden Holdings Inc & Ors (unreported 26 October 1995) and Nightingale v Mehta [2000] WTLR 901 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Prest v Petrodel [2013] UKSC 34. Master Dagnall held that insofar as these cases stated that the Court should approach matters on the basis that a deliberate decision had been made to structure the acquisition of property through a nominee company in order that the nominee company should own the beneficial interest rather than the funder, this had been overruled by more modern case law.
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