A three-member arbitration panel in Singapore has dismissed C. Sivasankaran’s claim that Malaysia-based Maxis Communications breached an agreement to float an initial public offering (IPO) for Aircel within three years of taking over the operator.
The arbitration panel said that Maxis had bought 100 per cent stake in Aircel through a commercial arm’s length transaction. It said that Sivasankaran had sold Aircel on the advice of his lawyers and was satisfied with the result.
Sivasankaran’s Siva Ventures Limited (SVL) had filed arbitration proceedings in 2009 against Maxis claiming damages for not exercising reasonable commercial efforts in floating an IPO for Aircel and for manipulating its business and financial affairs to ensure that no upside amount was payable to SVL.
However, it is believed that the three-member arbitration panel has rejected these claims and has asked SVL to pay $7 million to Maxis as legal costs.
