News: Work highlights

Arbitration proceedings between Cunico Resources N.V. and the Republic of North Macedonia have been discontinued

Petrol Chilikov team led by Egor Chilikov acted for Cunico Resources N.V., an Amsterdam-based company engaged in mining and producing of ferro-nickel worldwide, in its controversies with the Republic of North Macedonia regarding Cunico’s key production subsidiary, FENI Industries AD.

Cunico agreed to sell FENI to a purchaser in 2017. Cunico alleged that the North Macedonian government truncated the transaction and orchestrated a takeover of FENI by initiating investigations and instignating bankruptcy proceedings regarding FENI.

Cunico took the case to ICSID arbitration in 2017 under the Netherlands-Macedonia BIT. The tribunal was composed of US chair John Crook, Bulgaria’s Stanimir Alexandrov and British-French national Philippe Sands.

On 31 January 2020 the tribunal issued an order taking note of the discontinuance of the proceeding pursuant to ICSID Arbitration Rule 43(1). The dispute has been settled.

ress coverage of the proceedings is available from the following sources: ICSID website, Investment Policy Hub, GAR (link 1, link 2) , IA Reporter (link 1, link 2).