de la decision de la cour de londres le 21/03. extrait des docs publies aujourd'hui par fqm pour son agm :
ZCCM Notice of Arbitration
In October 2016, the Company, through its subsidiary Kansanshi Holdings Ltd., received a notice of arbitration from ZCCM under the KMP Shareholders Agreement (the ‘‘ZCCM Notice of Arbitration’’). ZCCM is a 20% shareholder in KMP and filed the ZCCM Notice of Arbitration against KMP and Kansanshi Holdings Limited, the 80% shareholder in KMP.
KMP also received a Statement of Claim filed in the High Court for Zambia naming additional defendants, including First Quantum, its subsidiary FQM Finance, and a number of directors and an executive of the named corporate defendants.
This dispute arises out of the rate of interest paid on significant cash deposits made by KMP with the Company’s financing
entity, FQM Finance. The funds on deposits were retained for planned investment by KMP in Zambia. FQM Finance paid
interest on the deposits to KMP based o
n an assessment of an arms-length fair market rate, which was supported by independent third-party analysis. ZCCM disputes that interest rate paid to KMP on the deposits was sufficient and has claimed that additional interest payments are due on the cash deposits based on a higher interest rate. ZCCM commenced a further action in the High Court for Zambia, making allegations repeated from the notice of claim against certain First Quantum subsidiaries, certain individual directors and an executive. While the
Company believes that the interest rate offered on those
deposits was a fair market rate, the Company cannot rule out that these proceedings may result in additional interest payments being made to KMP. Such payments would not be expected to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s liquidity, financial condition or results of operations.
The dispute is stated as a request for a derivative action, which will require ZCCM to obtain permission to proceed in each
forum of the Arbitration and the Lusaka High Court. Several preliminary procedural applications to dismiss the High Court Action were lodged on behalf of the Company in the Lusaka High Court. By a decision dated January 25, 2018, the Lusaka High Court used its discretion to rectify procedural errors by ZCCM. The Court has since granted leave to appeal against this judgment and the litigants have agreed to a stay pending the appeal.
The Arbitration required ZCCM to petition the Arbitral Tribunal for permission to maintain the derivative action. A hearing in the Arbitration on whether permission is granted or denied took place in January 2018. The Arbitral Tribunal heard arguments from both sides for three days. On 22 February 2018, the Tribunal issued a ruling denying ZCCM permission to continue the proceedings.
On 21 March 2018 ZCCM served an application seeking to challenge the Arbitral Tribunal’s ruling through the English court
