White & Case Wins Third Consecutive Victory Defending Romania in an Investment Treaty Arbitration

Washington, DC, August 17, 2010 ... Global law firm White & Case LLP achieved its third significant victory for Romania when a three-member tribunal terminated proceedings before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) without any finding of liability by Romania in the case of S&T Oil Equipment and Machinery Ltd (S&T) against Romania.

"This case represents the third complete win that White & Case has achieved for Romania, following awards dismissing all claims against Romania in two prior ICSID arbitrations, Noble Ventures v. Romania and EDF v. Romania.," said Abby Cohen Smutny, a partner in the International Arbitration Practice of White & Case.

S&T, a US company, had entered into an agreement with Romania's privatization authority to take over the privatization of S.C. Nitramonia S.A., a large chemical manufacturing and processing plant. After S&T refused to cure numerous breaches of its obligations under the agreement, including a mandatory obligation to invest in Nitramonia’s working capital, the privatization authority terminated the privatization and re-registered itself as the owner of Nitramonia and several companies that S&T had spun off Nitramonia. S&T filed claims against Romania under the US–Romania bilateral investment treaty claiming its investment had been unlawfully expropriated and seeking compensation of approximately €140 million.

"After the case was fully briefed and all evidence was exchanged by the parties, S&T evidently decided to abandon its case, just weeks before the oral hearing on the merits was scheduled to begin, declining to pay its share of ICSID administrative fees," said Darryl Lew, who together with Smutny served as lead counsel in the case. After nearly a full year passed, the ICSID Tribunal agreed to terminate the proceedings.

In addition to Smutny and Lew, the White & Case team included Francis A. Vasquez, Jr., Robert J. Bittman, Anne D. Smith, Petr Polasek, Brody K. Greenwald, Sylvia Tonova, Daniel R. Gilbert, Danielle S. Tarin, Kristen M. Young and Reuben Sequeira. The law firm of Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii served as co-counsel in the case.

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