The Authority for State Assets Recovery (AVAS) in Romania has selected the consortium formed by law firms Tuca & Asociatii and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to represent Romania in an international arbitration, registered at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by two Turkish businessmen.  Omer Dede and Serdar Elhuseyni have complained that the Romanian State violated the privatization contract of IMUM Medgidia. The consortium was named winner following a selection procedure organized by AVAS.

The demand in the arbitration case was registered at ICSID in Washington in November 2010. Depending on the procedural schedule, the process can take four to five years.

Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii's team of lawyers will defend for the fourth time Romania's interests to the ICSID. Over time, Romania was called eight times to ICSID, where it won three cases of arbitration, the others still being in court.

With a team of 90 lawyers in the office in Bucharest, of which 21 are partners, Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii operates a secondary headquarters in Cluj-Napoca, which works in partnership with Nistorescu, Somlea & Asociatii, and a representative office in Madrid, Spain.

IMUM Medgidia produces equipments for agriculture. It was first privatized in 2000, but AVAS canceled the privatization contract, while the Turkish investors who filed the complaint at ICSID took over the company in 2005. AVAS has again canceled the contract after the investors have not achieved the requirements of the privatization contract.

Romania has other four pending cases at ICSID, filed by the Rompetrol Group N.V.;  Hassan Awdi, Enterprise Business Consultants, Inc. and Alfa El Corporation; Spyridon Roussalis; Ioan Micula and Viorel Micula.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(foto source: sxc.hu)