Re: Court Approval of Settlement Agreement Between Crystallex and Venezuela
posted on
Nov 24, 2017 01:27AM
Crystallex International Corporation is a Canadian-based gold company with a successful record of developing and operating gold mines in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America
The 12% was an estimate floated by the Shareholder's Committe (SC) leaders. However, when the KRY and Tenor lawyers took their deposition to find out what their aims was, the KRY lawyers grilled the SC leader and his lawyer on this point and force them to retract their estimate and agree to the fact that "the share of the Net Arbitration Proceeds (NAP) is "significantly higher" that their original estimate. In retracting their 12% estimate, they indicated that they had learned this fact later on in discussions with the E&Y Monitor's office. A copy of the deposition is on the Gowlings site: File Documents / Motion Materials / # 14 Responding Motion Materials of the Company , dated April 6, 2016 Page 18 of the deposition, row 8.
So, my guess-estimate is that the shareholder's share of the NAP is 20-25%. However, if the settlement includes a payment for the mining data (GRZ got $240 million for its mining data), it must go to the shareholders only, since the mining data was not part of the ICSID arbitration award and the CCAA court-approved distribution of the NAP.
The key questions regarding the shareholders' share of the NAP is 1) whether the portion of the NAP that Ternor is getting breaks the Canadian Criminal interest rate law (i.e. lenders cannot earn more than 60% p.a. in compensation on loans they make), and 2) will Gowlings or anybody representing the KRY shareholders take them to court for this?