The shareholders lobby group VEB and the banks which managed the IPO of internet service provider World Online have reached broad agreement on compensation for shareholders.

The 12,000 WOL investors who are members of the VEB will share a maximum €110m to compensate them for their losses.
The agreement follows a high court ruling last year which said World Online, ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs did mislead investors prior to the launch in 2000.
Share price collapse
WOL shares started trading at €50 but had halved in price two weeks later and were under €10 at the end of the year.
It later emerged WOL owner Nina Brink had sold most of her shares before the IPO for just $ 6.04 a share.
The high court said Brink had given ‘the wrong impression’ about her share ownership before the launch and that the banks failed in their duties to correct this impression. They also painted ‘too rosy’ a picture of World Online’s prospects.
VEB director Jan Maarten Slagter welcomed the settlement. ‘The VEB has worked hard for this for years,’ he said.