KUWAIT ORDERED TO PAY DOW CHEMICAL $2.16 BILLION
By Gordon Platt
Kuwait’s state-run chemical company must pay the US’s Dow Chemical $2.16 billion for wrongfully canceling a planned joint venture in December 2008, as the global economy was sinking, an arbitrator has ruled.
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Kuwait company in the spotlight after joint venture cancelled |
The ruling by the International Court of Arbitration, part of the International Chamber of Commerce, is final and binding. Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries pulled out of the planned $17.4 billion plastics JV, known as K-Dow Petrochemicals, just days before the transaction was expected to close.
Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes is fighting off an unsolicited takeover bid at the same time that its co-chief executives and a former CEO were charged with insider trading involving two sons of deposed president Hosni Mubarak. EFG-Hermes, one of the largest investment banks in the region, denied any wrongdoing and issued a statement saying: “No EFG-Hermes executive has any financial relationship whatsoever—directly or indirectly, locally or internationally—with any member of the former president’s family.”
Shareholders of the Cairo bank have approved a joint venture with QInvest. Meanwhile, Planet IB, a group of Arab investors and Egyptian bankers, announced a rival $1 billion bid for EFG-Hermes. EFG-Hermes said it has decided to take legal action to protect the interests of its shareholders and employees.
