EQT’s $168 Million Investor Class Accord Gets Court Go-Ahead (1)

EQT Corp. earned a federal court’s final approval for a nearly $168 million settlement of investor class claims the company overhyped the benefits of its Rice Energy Inc. acquisition.

Judge Robert J. Colville‘s approval of the deal ends over six years of litigation, releasing allegations the natural-gas corporation boasted about the 2017 acquisition of the oil-and-gas company and then hid integration difficulties. The US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania judge Nov. 4 awarded investors’ counsel 28% of the settlement sum in attorneys’ fees, plus interest, and about $8.21 million to pay litigation expenses.

The class includes ...