Highbury to challenge arbitration in Venezuela

The legal representatives of Highbury International AVV announced on a press release that they were "pondering the possibility of resuming arbitration through subsidiary Caromin Aruba AVV, or lodging an action seeking annulment of the arbitration, or both." Reference was made to an action against Venezuela under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Icsid) over mining concessions Alfa and Delta, located near River Caroní, southeastern Bolívar state.

For Highbury, the Icsid award was grounded only on the fact that the company "failed to prove irrefutably the date when Caromin Aruba AVV transferred the shares." However, state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) claimed in a statement that "the lawsuit was dismissed because the Tribunal declared that it had no jurisdiction and grounds to resolve the case."

The legal representatives argued that "the Icsid Court did not dismissed the USD 633 million claim, but rather ruled that another company of the group, rather than Highbury, was entitled to lodge a lawsuit."

They stated that "the date of the transfer (of shares) is evidenced on the shareholders' book, which is the probative evidence required by the Venezuelan Commercial Code, a law that, unexplainably, the Tribunal did not enforce."

"The Tribunal also exceeded itself in the exercise of its functions by refusing to hear the case although it had the jurisdiction to do so," Highbury legal representatives added.