Issue #27 : Justice was served
Welcome to the 27th edition of Overheard in Asia!
Here are the 🌶 headlines:
Philippines: The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation sues 33 offshore gaming license holders for unpaid fees
South Korea: British & Australian arbitrators hear a Seoul-seated dispute over rights to nuclear reactor technology
Thailand: UK Court awards over USD 850 million to the exiled founder of a Thai wind energy group
Thailand: A poultry businessman loses his 36th (out of 37) defamation suits
Ling Yah
P/S: Know of any interesting seminars happening? Drop us a note at editor@overheard.asia!
You Have No Right!
It's hard to ignore the dispute between Vedanta Ltd and the Indian government. So let's talk about it.
🍿 Background
Vedanta Ltd is an Indian multinational mining company based in Mumbai.
It entered into a Production Sharing Contract with the Indian government over the Rajasthan oil and gas field, which allowed Vedanta to recover all costs incurred before splitting profits in a predetermined ration with the government.
👀 What Happened?
The Directorate General of Hydocarbon, an upstream agency under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, sought to:
Reallocate certain common costs between the fields in the block; and
Disallow a total cost of $1.1 billion incurred on laying a pipeline to evacuate oil from the Rajasthan block.
Given the disallowance of $1.1 billion, this resulted higher profits and inevitably (!), a larger share for the government to take as per the terms of the contract.
Vedanta challenged this before an arbitration tribunal.
🚨Held
Arbitration award was made in favour of Vedanta, i.e. government is not entitled to payment of extra profit.
That said, the Indian government has history of challenging awards that it has lost so this might not be the last that we hear of this dispute!
Unlawful Termination?
Here’s an interesting case coming to the Singapore International Arbitration Centre:
On 5 May 2022, MaxLinear entered into a $4 billion cash-and-stock merger agreement to acquire Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (“Silicon Motion”), which is a Taiwan-based developer of NAND flash controller integrated circuits for solid-state storage devices (“Merger Agreement”).
On 26 July 2023, MaxLinear terminated the Merger Agreement, claiming that it had suffered a “material adverse effect”.
Silicon Motion hit back, claiming that MaxLinear had breached their merger agreement and that it would seek damages in excess of the termination fee of $160 million from the US company.
MaxLinear claims that Silicon Motion’s action is without merit and that it would rigorously defend its right to terminate the deal without paying a penalty in arbitration.
Stay tuned for more news on this. 😎
Play Fair!
Let’s cast our eyes to an appeal case that just concluded in Malaysia.
🍿 Background
In 2019, Tune Group Sdn Bhd, Datuk Seri Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan, Datuk Lim Kian Onn, and Christopher Mark Anthony Lankester (“Sellers”) entered into an agreement with Padda Gurtaj to sell 850,934 shares of Tune Talk Sdn Bhd at RM 3 apiece (“2019 Agreement”).
Under the 2019 Agreement, Padda was meant to provide a cheque within 30 days of the signing date.
However, Celcom disagreed with the RM 3 offer and demanded that the Sellers determine the fair market value of the shares (“Request”).
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Celcom withdrew its Request.
When Padda sought to enforce the 2019 Agreement, the Sellers argued that the 2019 Agreement no longer held as the 30-days period had passed.
🚨 Held
In February 2022, parties went into arbitration and Padda’s application was granted in March.
The Malaysian High Court later upheld the arbitrator’s decision in August.
The Sellers appealed, arguing that the arbitrator had dealt with a dispute which wasn’t contemplated or fell within the terms of submission to the arbitration.
Last month, the Court of Appeal found that the arbitrator had not acted in excess of its jurisdiction. The three-member bench unanimously upheld the 2022 High Court award and ruled that no appellate intervention was warranted.
Spotlight: Joe Liu
⚒️ What do you do?
I am a full-time arbitrator with an institutional and private practice background, having previously worked at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and Allen & Overy. I thoroughly enjoyed working at all these places but decided to embrace the new challenge of working independently last year.
Since the launch of my own practice, I have worked on a number of cases as arbitrator or domain name panelist under various governing laws and procedural rules. I have also been appointed to the governing body of several dispute resolution organisations.
I am currently writing an award and preparing for a hearing in some of my cases. I’m also preparing for a number of speaking engagements in Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the coming months, as well as writing a book which is scheduled for publication next year.
🏆 What is your proudest achievement?
I had the honour and privilege to be part of the HKIAC Rules Revision Committee responsible for drafting the 2013 and 2018 versions of the HKIAC Administered Arbitration Rules (Rules). I had the fortune of working with many intelligent and eminent colleagues to examine each provision of the Rules, consider international best practice, and devise procedural mechanisms to address possible issues that might arise under the Rules.
I think the Rules are a great achievement of the HKIAC and I am proud to be part of the rules making process.
⌛ There are now 25 hours in a day! How do you spend your extra hour?
I would dedicate the time to something I enjoy mostly outside of work, such as spending time with my family, enjoying good food, exercising and planning my next trip.
🚀 If you weren't a lawyer, what would you do?
I would be a travel consultant. I have a passion for travelling and have many ideas and tips to share with others.
😋 Your favourite food haunt
My personal favourite is a local wine shop called “Oakey Dokey” on Pok Man Street in Hong Kong. There is a nice selection of wine and an open kitchen making excellent tapas (I strongly recommend the grilled tenderloin and flounder fillet). It’s a small but popular place with warm-hearted staff and a relaxing environment.
I go there often with friends or colleagues, so say hi if you see me there!
*This interview has been edited for brevity & clarity.
Food Feature
In you are ever near Singapore's Chinatown, make a pit stop at Spring Court for some dim sum. It's been around for ~90 years & has a ton of incredible food choices including its roast pork, Peking duck & popiah!
The almond paste is pretty good too. 😉
That said, it's always packed so try to make a booking beforehand just in case.
Details: Website, Facebook, Google Maps
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