Qatari company expected to fail in bid to void arbitration ruling in favour of Jordan

AMMAN — Jordan’s largest investment fund expects failure for a new case filed by a Qatari company to void an international arbitrator’s ruling in the case dubbed “Housing Bank Stakes” case.

Social Security Investment Fund (SSIF) Chairman Suleiman Hafez on Monday said the plaintiff has filed a motion against SSIF in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, calling for voiding an arbitration decision on Wednesday, after its original bid was dismissed.

Hafez said the fund has not received a case list that shows the reasons behind the plaintiff’s motion to annul the decision, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The Qatari Al Musabalah Company had filed a lawsuit at the International Arbitration Court in Zurich, Switzerland, some two years ago, alleging it had bought the fund’s stake in the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance  — Jordan’s second largest bank — and requesting the SSIF to pay over JD93 million for failing to execute the alleged agreement.

The SSIF’s legal counsellors do not expect the Swiss court to endorse the contest, according to Hafez.

He said the previous decision was marked as final by the Swiss court; after that, the plaintiff contented the arbitrator, prompting the London Court of International Arbitration to form a trilateral committee of high-ranking jurists, according to Petra.

The panel studied the 17 contest reasons of the plaintiff, and rejected all as “absurd” or “unreasonable”, Hafez noted.

“The arbitrator had no doubt that the stake sale agreement was fake and that the fund was a victim of a counterfeit attempt and the plaintiff filed the lawsuit with ill intention,” the SSIF chief said.

Hafez said the Swiss court is expected to take into consideration the grounds on which the arbitration decision had been taken and the findings of the trilateral committee when it reviews the void motion.