Cardiff City delay loan repayment

FA Cup semi-finalists Cardiff City have managed to put off the repayment of millions of pounds in loans despite pressure from the lending bank.

A High Court judge rejected a pre-emptive bid by the Swiss investment bank Langston to secure immediate repayment of up to £24 million.

Langston is suing the club over loan notes which it holds and had sought "summary judgment", which would have forced the Championship club to pay up immediately.

But Mr Justice Briggs, sitting in London, dismissed the claim, so the case will go forward to a full trial of the complex issues involved.

He also extended the time limit for Langston to renew its application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal until June 10.

Announcing that a two-month stay on the action had been agreed, the club's counsel, David Wolfson, said: "It has always been the club's aim to reach a settlement without incurring further legal costs and, over the next two months, we hope very much to do that so we can concentrate on matters on the field where, I'm glad to say, we have enjoyed some success."

After the hearing, Cardiff City chairman, Peter Ridsdale, said: "I'm relieved. I think that we have always accepted that we owed Langston £16 million and the proceeds of the naming rights of the new stadium up to a maximum of £9 million.

"We feel that the action over the last seven months has been strangling the club and has been unnecessary.

"We would expect anyone who has a difference of opinion to sit down and come to an amicable conclusion but all that happened was we were dragged through the courts, which was very expensive and time-consuming and stops the process of raising cash which could have gone towards resolving this dispute.

"I sincerely hope they will sit around the table and realise that an amicable situation is the only way forward for both parties."

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