Thousands of investors who lost money during the disastrous stock exchange launch of internet company World Online in 2000 will get their money back, the AD reports on Tuesday.

The settlement, which the paper says is the most generous ever made to Dutch investors, means investors will get back €47 for every €43 they invested in WOL shares when the company was floated on the Amsterdam stock exchange 12 years ago.
The deal covers some 20,000 mainly private investors who put money into the company. It later transpired investors had not been given crucial information about WOL and that its founder, Nina Brink, sold a large part of her own shares prior to the launch. The share price then collapsed.
The payout is the result of an agreement reached between the Dutch investors’ association VEB and Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs, the AD says.
In 2009, the high court ruled the banks and the company had misled investors.