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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 16 October 2015:
A Paris court will rule on Monday, 18 October on an attempt by the Kuwaiti . . .[restrict]Al-Kharafi Group to seize a Libyan plane in France as part of moves to recoup a billion dollars awarded it by a Cairo arbitration court.
The Al-Kharafi Group is attempting to seize Qaddafi’s A340 Airbus which he bought from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for €120 million in 2003. Damaged during the revolution, it was sent to France for repairs and has been there ever since.
French lawyers acting for Libya are claiming sovereign immunity in the case.
An arbitration panel in Cairo had ordered Libya in March 2013 to pay nearly a billion dollars to the Kuwaiti company for the loss of 90 years’ potential income from a cancelled Tripoli tourism project.
The Kharafi Group had been given the damages in arbitration proceedings organised by the Arab League as part of the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in Arab States.
Since 1992, the Arab Convention on Commercial Arbitration has worked under the aegis of the League.
The Kuwaiti group, owned by one of the richest merchant families in the Gulf, has a $4-billion annual turnover. It had agreed in 2006 to develop a $130-million Holiday Inn-branded resort in the Tajoura area of Tripoli, to be completed in 2011.
Besides a 252-room hotel, it would have included 100 villas, a shopping mall, a convention centre, spa and 1.4 km of beach with a club and water sport facilities. When Kharafi established its subsidiary Sovereign Hospitality Holdings in 2008, the project was transferred to it.
Until the uprising, when the deal was apparently cancelled, the Kuwaitis said that they had invested in feasibility studies, design and management contracts. These have been estimated at around US$ 5 million. However, the major part of their claim was for the loss of projected profit which they put at LD 1.2 billion, plus interest.
| Arbitration award against Libya | to Kuwaiti Kharafi Group | |
| 1 | US$ 30 million | Compensation for ‘‘moral damages’’ |
| 2 | US$ 5 million | Representing the value of losses and expenses. |
| 3 | US$ 900 million | Compensation for lost profits resulting from real and certain lost opportunities. |
| 4 | US$ 1.94 million | Arbitration costs and expenses. |
| 5 | 4% interest rate | Shall apply to all amounts awarded from date of issuance of decision until full settlement |
| Total: 936, 940 million |
It is thought that this may be the first such ruling on loss of future income by the Arab Convention on Commercial Arbitration, which was in part designed to protect Arab investors in other Arab League countries. [/restrict]
