A High Court battle between developers Frontier Estates and Abstract Land over the profits from the sale of a £154m Birmingham office scheme has been settled out of court.

Secret joint venture claim

Last year Frontier filed a claim alleging that former Frontier director James Howarth diverted the opportunity to develop Colmore Plaza to Mark Glatman at Abstract Land in a secret joint venture.

Glatman and Howarth both denied the claims against them – saying the Frontier had not been in a position to buy the site.

Ray Palmer, chairman of Frontier, said the two companies had managed to resolve their differences.

Happy with settlement

‘Both parties have arrived at a settlement we are happy with,’ he said.

Abstract sold Colmore Plaza to US private equity firm Carlyle in November 2006.

The Post & Mail site, later developed into Colmore Plaza, was originally bought for £12m from Parlison Properties in December 2004.