Simon Batifort Quoted by Global Arbitration Review on P&ID v. Nigeria Arbitration

Global Arbitration Review (GAR) has quoted comments by partner Simon Batifort following the decision of the London High Court of Justice to uphold the challenge to the arbitral award rendered in P&ID v. Nigeria.

GAR’s article published on 27 October 2023 states:

“Simon Batifort of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle in Brussels says that the arbitration is ‘a cas d’école of investor-state dispute settlement gone wrong’ and particularly notes the ‘disturbing’ and ‘uncritical’ way in which the tribunal accepted the claimant’s ‘misrepresentations and arguments… despite the enormous economic stakes and Nigeria’s clear lack of adequate representation’.

He says this led to the tribunal awarding damages for ‘20 years of lost profits for a project that never saw the light of day’ and applying a 2.65% risk-free discount rate that ‘entirely ignored the inherent pitfalls associated with implementing such a project in Nigeria’.

It also applied a 7% interest rate which ‘further inflated the award’ to (ultimately) US$11 billion – more than a third of Nigeria’s annual budget – he says.

‘Putting corruption aside, such an award should never have been rendered.’”

The GAR article is available here.