China’s Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co. has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, demanding %4.5 billion in compensation for the violation, in its opinion, of the Sino-Ukrainian intergovernmental agreement of October 1992 on protection of the company’s investment in Motor-Sich shares, the Chinese publication Global Times reported, with reference to Skyrizon.“Chinese investors have suffered significant losses both in Ukraine and in China due to five years of unfair treatment and continued use of illegal measures in Ukraine,” the newspaper reports.At the same time, information about the claim is not yet available on the website of the Hague Arbitration.Earlier it was reported that Skyrizon and other Chinese investors in Motor-Sich shares notified Ukraine of their intention to submit to international arbitration in early September 2020, and sent a direct request to the court in early December as there was no compromise with Kyiv. The initial amount of claims was %3.5 billion. The interests of the Chinese plaintiffs were represented by the international law firms WilmerHale, DLA Piper and Bird & Bird.PJSC Motor-Sich is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of engines for aviation equipment, as well as industrial gas turbine units. It supplies products to more than 100 countries around the world. Last year, Motor-Sich received UAH 906.65 million in net profit against UAH 703.18 million in net loss in the previous year. The company’s revenue increased by 14.1% – up to UAH 11.432 billion.According to a source in the Ukrainian government, currently about 75% of Motor-Sich’s shares are already owned by a group of Chinese owners, and some part of the disputed block of shares acts as a pledge for financing provided, among other things, by China Development Bank.
