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Citigroup is facing a €59 million lawsuit launched by a UK-based investment firm that says the Wall Street bank gave “misleading” and “inaccurate” advice when working for of this in a future public list.

Alcimos, which wants to raise capital to invest in the Greek property market, says it lost tens of millions of euros in fees after Citi bankers misled the company’s management about investor appetite for in IPO in 2018.

Citi has denied the allegations, which are contained in papers filed at the High Court in London, and reviewed by the Financial Times.

The lawsuit centers on Alcimos engaging Citi in late 2017 to organize and conduct early investor meetings about a potential sale of shares in a special purpose vehicle and provide feedback. of the company.

Alcimos claimed that Citi had inaccurately told its management that some investors were not interested in supporting a listing. It said 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 investor support to carry out the proposed IPO, denied that it had misrepresented the level of investor interest.

The lawsuit is an unwelcome distraction for Citi, which has been trying to move on from several high-profile mistakes in recent years. Last year, the bank was fined $135.6min in the US for failing to correct long-standing problems with risk controls and data management, and given a £62mn penalty in the UK for failing to prevent a fat-fingered $1.4bn trading error.

In emails referenced in court documents, Linos Lekkas, a senior Citi dealmaker who retired last year, apologized to Alcimos’ management for “any inconsistencies in the communication of the message that we may have missed intentionally included in our presentation or stated in any calls” before terminating the relationship between the companies.

Alcimos then replaced Citi with Barclays in May 2018, but admitted that “the need to clarify the inaccurate feedback on Citi’s investment and the replacement of Citi all negatively affected investor sentiment for the proposed IPO” .

In the end it left the list because the deteriorating market conditions meant “there was not enough appetite to invest”. Alcimos, which had hoped to raise up to €250 million, said it “suffered a loss and damage” of €58.6 million as a result of scrapping the IPO. Citi disputes this.

In its defense filing, Citi said there was “insufficient investor appetite to pursue the proposed IPO” and that the deal “could not proceed if smaller hedge fund investors were willing to participate or if the commitments from large investors are small”.

The bank also said that while it has agreed to coordinate early meetings with investors for the proposed deal, dubbed “Project Alphabet”, it has not entered into a “legally binding agreement” to act as a global co-ordinator.

Alcimos was placed into liquidation in October following a petition from a creditor, according to Companies House filings.

The case has been passed to the Official Receiver, part of the UK government’s insolvency service, which is now responsible for overseeing the company’s affairs and the liquidation, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the Official Receiver said it did not comment on “ongoing cases”.

Separately, Alcimos’ sister company, which specializes in arranging and fundraising in litigation, last year coordinates an acquisition for investors hurt by the collapse of Greensill Capital.

Citi declined to comment.