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Citigroup is facing a €59mn lawsuit brought by a UK investment firm alleging the Wall Street bank gave “misleading” and “false” advice when working on a prospective group.

Alcimos, which sought to raise capital to sell on the Greek property market, said it lost millions of euros in cash after Citi bankers misled the company’s management about potential investors in its 2018 IPO.

Citi has denied the claims, which are contained in papers submitted to London’s High Court, and reviewed by the Financial Times.

The case revolves around Alcimos working with Citi in late 2017 to prepare and conduct initial meetings regarding the sale of a special purpose vehicle and provide solutions to the company.

Alcimos said Citi misrepresented its management that other investors were not interested in backing the listing. He added that the same investors had told the company directly that they might be interested in participating in the IPO.

Citi, which argued that there was insufficient funding support to make the proposed IPO viable, denied that it misrepresented the level of investor interest.

The case is an unexpected setback for Citi, which is looking to move on from a series of high-profile mistakes in recent years. Last year, the bank paid a fine $135.6mn in the US for failing to fix long-standing problems in risk management and data management, and was fined £62mn in the UK for failing to prevent a $1.4bn oil-finger trading error.

In emails cited in court documents, Linos Lekkas, a senior Citi trader who retired last year, apologized to Alcimos management for “any inconsistencies in text messaging that we may have inadvertently included or omitted whenever we called” before quitting. cooperation between companies.

Alcimos then replaced Citi and Barclays in May 2018, but said “the need to explain Citi’s misguided views and the replacement of Citi all affected investors’ views on the proposed IPO”.

It later dropped the listing because the market crash meant there was “no longer enough appetite to buy”. Alcimos, which hopes to raise up to €250mn, says it has “lost and suffered losses” of €58.6mn as a result of the IPO loss. Citi disputed this.

In its defense filings, Citi said that “there is insufficient appetite for investors to proceed with the proposed IPO” and that the deal “would not be possible if smaller hedge fund investors were willing to participate or if the commitments of large investors were limited. “.

The bank also said that although it had agreed to hold preliminary meetings for investors on the proposed project, called “Project Alphabet”, it had not made a “legal agreement” to become a global operator.

Alcimos was suspended in October following a request from a lender, according to Companies House filings.

The case has been handed over to the Official Receiver, which is part of the UK government’s insolvency process, which is now in charge of the company’s affairs and closure, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the Official Receiver said he had no comment on “ongoing litigation”.

Separately, the sister company of Alcimos, which specializes in the processing and financing of cases, last year. he coordinated the decision to investors disappointed by the collapse of Greensill Capital.

Citi declined to comment.