A High Court judge has ruled that Lloyds Banking Group must hand over the advice Linklaters gave it on its takeover of HBOS in 2009 to disgruntled shareholders in an ongoing £350m dispute.

Shareholders in Lloyds have launched a law suit against the bank claiming that its directors withheld information about the state of HBOS’s finances when it asked for shareholder approval for the takeover in 2008.