GAR Highlights Aníbal Sabater’s Role as Emergency Arbitrator in Prominent Mining Dispute

August 2016 –  Under the headline “Brazil’s CCX settles Colombian coal fight,” Global Arbitration Review published a story on August 23rd discussing CCX’s US$125 million ICC arbitration with Turkish conglomerate Yildirim Holding.  According to GAR, the dispute concerned several mining assets in northern Colombia, including fifth-largest coal deposit in the world.

According to GAR, “CCX had sought to sell the assets for US$450 million in 2013 as part of a series of divestments . . . Yildirim agreed in March 2014 to buy the assets from CCX for US$125 million, a deal that Bloomberg described as a “fire sale”. The Turkish group paid an initial US$35 million and was to pay the remainder upon the transfer of the assets, which was expected to happen by the end of that year. But the mining titles were not all transferred by the scheduled date, leading Yildirim to lodge an ICC claim in March 2015 seeking to compel CCX to fulfil all conditions to closing.”   GAR notes that Yildirim filed a request for emergency relief after CCX received an unsolicited US$170 million bid for the assets from a group of investors led by US private equity group Blackstone. In its request Yildirim reportedly sought an emergency order to prevent CCX from engaging in talks with potential third-party buyers.  CCX opposed the request.

As GAR’s story notes, Chaffetz Lindsey partner Aníbal Sabater acted as emergency arbitrator in the matter and issued in April 2015 an emergency order disposing of Yildirim’s application and CCX’s opposition thereto.

Aníbal frequently acts as counsel and arbitrator in complex matters under all major international arbitration rules.  Actively involved in professional organizations, Aníbal is the chair of the New York International Arbitration Center’s Programs Committee, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a Vice President of the American Branch of the International Law Association.  He was also a member of the committee that worked on the first ever ICDR expedited procedures, and is a member of the ICC Taskforce on Financial Institutions and the ICC Taskforce on Emergency Arbitrator Proceedings.

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