The enchantment comes as Cairn is pulling out all of the stops to get better the damages award
India has appealed in opposition to an order by a world tribunal to pay $1.2 billion in damages, plus different prices, to Cairn Energy in a long-running tax dispute, two sources with direct data of the matter instructed Reuters. London-listed Cairn in December was awarded damages of $1.2 billion-plus curiosity and prices, taking the present complete to over $1.7 billion. India, which is now liable to make this cost, had stated beforehand it could problem the order.
The enchantment, filed on Monday in a Dutch court docket, comes as Cairn is pulling out all of the stops to get better the damages award, together with hiring a workforce of asset restoration consultants. It additionally comes weeks forward of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s go to to India to construct deeper enterprise ties.
India has appealed on the grounds that taxation-related issues should not lined in its bilateral funding treaty with the United Kingdom underneath which the case was filed, and subsequently the arbitration tribunal doesn’t have the jurisdiction to rule on the matter, one of many sources stated. Cairn and India’s finance ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Cairn has already filed instances in native courts within the United States, UK, France, Netherlands, Singapore and Quebec to implement the arbitration award, and there’s more likely to be extra enforcement actions in different nations, Dennis Hranitzky, head of the sovereign litigation observe at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a regulation agency representing the corporate, instructed Reuters.
This basically implies that as soon as it obtains orders from the native courts, Cairn can determine and seize Indian property, which might embrace financial institution accounts, Air India planes, and property of different Indian state-owned firms, he stated.
“Cairn has appointed a team of the best asset-tracing and recovery experts in the business to collect against India,” Hranitzky stated, including that the corporate will do the whole lot it takes to get better the total quantity of the arbitral award if settlement discussions should not fruitful.
Cairn has stated the cash in the end belongs to its shareholders – which embrace massive traders resembling BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton, and the ramifications of India not honouring the award will “run across the international investment community more widely”.
