Squire Patton Boggs team has secured a significant victory for the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in two arbitrations before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), dismissing claims valued by claimants at $635 million.
The arbitrations, Sanum Investment v Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Lao Holdings v Lao People’s Democratic Republic, arose from a dispute over a casino development brought under the Netherlands-Lao and China-Lao bilateral investment treaties in 2012. Since then, there has been a long history of disputes between the parties, with Laos prevailing against the claimants in every case.
In its latest decisions, the tribunal once again dismissed all the claimants’ material claims, determining that Laos had not breached its bilateral investment treaties through the confiscation and sale of the Savan Vegas casino and its actions following a settlement agreement in 2014. The Tribunal limited claimants’ claims going forward to three discrete issues, the value of which will be determined in a subsequent procedure, but in any event are capped at no more than $3 million.
The Squire Patton Boggs team was led by International Dispute Resolution partner John Branson.