In re Venator Materials PLC Securities Litigation

On March 8, 2019, Labaton Sucharow LLP was appointed interim co-lead counsel to jointly litigate this securities class action pending in Texas state court against Venator Materials PLC (“Venator”) in connection with Venator’s stock offerings on August 4, 2017 (“IPO”) and December 1, 2017 (“SPO”), which raised over a billion dollars for its controlling shareholders.

On April 8, 2019, lead plaintiffs filed a Consolidated Complaint for Violation of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Complaint”) asserting claims under Sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act. The Complaint alleges that the registration statements and prospectuses used in connection with the IPO and SPO misrepresented the true state of one of the Venator’s manufacturing facilities, the Pori Plant, which was destroyed before the IPO in a devastating fire. In connection with the offerings, Venator downplayed the severity of the damage and insisted it would be fully repaired given the Company’s $500M insurance policy. After the IPO and SPO, Venator announced that it was abandoning the Pori Plant and by December 17, 2018, the price of Venator’s stock had plummeted by over 80%.

After the Complaint was filed, Venator and the several other defendants named in the action filed various motions to dismiss the Complaint or stay the case. The Court subsequently denied each of these motions and the case is proceeding.

The case is In re Venator Materials PLC Securities Litigation, No. DC-19-02030. Labaton Sucharow represents Firemen’s Retirement System of St. Louis as a co-lead plaintiff. The defendants are Venator Materials PLC, certain of its officers and directors, its controlling shareholders, and its IPO and SPO underwriters.