OMANI FUND TAKES BULGARIA TO ARBITRATION OVER CORPBANK’S COLLAPSE

Oman's largest sovereign wealth fund has filed an arbitration claim against Bulgaria over the collapse of Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes said, quoted by Forbes and New York Times.

Oman's State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) owned a 30 percent stake in Corpbank. Before collapsing in 2014, Corpbank was fourth largest lender in Bulgaria. SGRF is seeking to receive at least 150 million euros. The fund argues that Bulgaria has breached key principles for equal treatment and protection of investors in the way it handled the collapse of Corpbank.

It was also quoted that a consortium of investors, including SGRF, submitted proposals in October 2014 for rescuing the bank. The claimants accuse Bulgaria’s central bank (BNB) that it did not consider the offer and withdrew the license of Corpbank thus leaving no chances to be rescued.

Commenting on Bulgaria’s position on the arbitration claim on 27nd of October, Bulgaria’s finance minister, Vladislav Goranov, said that Oman’s fund claims against the state were ungrounded.

Goranov said that Bulgaria had already hired lawyers. “We think it is ungrounded a shareholder of a bank that was declared insolvent to have any claims against the state”, he added.