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Wilfred George, an unnamed class member who failed to intervene in the proceedings below, appeals the district court’s order awarding attorneys’ fees to class counsel in the amount of thirty percent of the settlement. We hold that because George filed an objection to the fee request in the district court, he has standing to pursue this appeal. We also determine that, although the district court properly calculated the attorneys’ fees as a percentage of the gross settlement amount, it did not adequately explain the basis for the award. We therefore vacate the order awarding fees to class counsel and remand the case to the district court.

I. Background

Appellees, a class of shareholders, sued Próxima Corporation and its various directors and officers (collectively “Próxi-ma”) for securities fraud. They allege that Próxima made false and misleading statements about the corporation’s business prospects, which inflated the price of its stock and allowed Próxima insiders to sell stock at the inflated price to the detriment of the shareholders.

The district court approved the named class members as lead plaintiffs and appointed their counsel, the firm of Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes…