Bahrain-headquartered telecommunications firm Batelco Group has sought full payment of $ 212 million from NRI entrepreneur C. Sivasankaran and Siva Ltd. after winning a litigation suit against the latter in England.
The judgment, made in the Commercial Court of the English High Court of Justice, fully upheld the claim of BMIC Limited (a fully-owned subsidiary of Batelco). The Court held that the defendants (Mr. Sivasankaran and Siva Ltd.) had failed to honour a Settlement Agreement signed in November 2011 relating to a commercial venture into which both parties had entered in 2009. The defendants were ordered to pay the judgment debt by June 26, 2014.
However, neither Mr. Sivasankaran nor Siva Limited had complied with the Court’s order as no payment has yet been made, said a statement from Batelco.
“The defendants are now in breach of the court’s ruling, and we require immediate payment of the full judgement,” said Batelco Group CEO Alan Whelan, in a statement. “We will pursue all legal avenues available to us wherever Mr.Sivasankaran and Siva Ltd. have assets, in order to secure this payment assisted by the worldwide freezing order which we obtained from the English High Court on July 16, 2014,’’ the statement went on to add.
Following the cancellation of 2G licences by India's Supreme Court in February 2012, BMIC, which originally acquired a 42.7 per cent stake of India-registered S Tel, which was awarded a 2G licence in 2008, sought to implement an agreed put option which, under certain circumstances, such as the cancellation of S Tel’s 2G licence, or a failure by Siva to secure debt financing, would ensure that Siva bought back the shares acquired by BMIC at the price paid originally. Since, they didn’t pay, BMIC launched legal proceedings.
