Mytilineos wins $40 million compensation in arbitration against Serbia
Mytilineos has won about $40 million in compensation from Serbia over a past deal with the country’s copper miner RTB Bor, resolving a major dispute, the Greek industrial group said on Tuesday.
A Geneva-based international arbitral tribunal ruled that Serbia had breached its obligations to Greece and Mytilineos under an international treaty by taking a series of legislative measures from 2004 to 2012 which granted RTB Bor immunity from enforcement under the pretext of restructuring which never occurred, Mytilineos said.
The tribunal ruled that Serbia indirectly expropriated Mytilineos’s investment without compensation and frustrated its legitimate and reasonable expectations as an investor to be afforded fair and equitable treatment by the Serbian state, it said.
Under a 1996 trading deal, RTB Bor, controlled by the Serbian state, made payments to Mytilineos in cash and metal but started to miss payments in 2004, while the Serbian government also prohibited the payments without its prior approval, Mytilineos said in a statement.
Mytilineos has had to write off millions of euros for RTB Bor’s payment arrears, the statement said.
The ruling was issued last week, a spokesman for Mytilineos said.
Mytilineos raised 300 million euros ($361.86 million) through a five-year bond in June and concluded a merger of its metallurgical, energy construction, power and natural gas activities in July, two months ahead of schedule. [Reuters]
