SEOUL : A 10-year arbitration battle wrapped on August 30 with all the International Centre with regard to Settlement of Investment decision Disputes (ICSID) imparting American private equity fund Lone Star US$217 million in problems from the South Korean government.
The case was sparked by what the Dallas-based finance alleged was Seoul’s refusal to permit the sale of a distressed asset it acquired within a sensible time frame, robbing it of billions of bucks worth of profits. Lone Star opened proceedings at the ICSID in 2012.
However , this dry explanation does not do the investor-state dispute, which took place in the tumultuous wake of the 1997-8 Oriental financial crisis, justice.
The highly emotive struggle saw unionists wielding machetes, key cameras embedded in C suites, finance chairmen being grilled in court plus questions being inquired behind closed doors in Washington’s corridors of energy.