Derains & Gharavi has extensive experience in M&A and Shareholders’ disputes, having been entrusted by large corporate, family-owned groups, and high-net-worth individuals, with counsel mandates, or appointed as arbitrator in, commercial arbitrations related to all types of post M&A disputes (price adjustment, breach of reps & warranties, liability guarantees) and all types of partnership agreements (joint venture agreements, shareholders agreements), as well as investment arbitrations in an M&A context.
The below non-exhaustive examples demonstrate the firm’s extensive experience in this sector (For full list see the CVs of Yves Derains and Hamid Gharavi):
- Successfully represented as lead counsel Lebanese high net worth individuals in ICC arbitrations against another high-net-worth Lebanese individual, arising out of an agreement for the restructuring of family assets (ICC Case Nos. 21312/ZF/AYZ; 25307/AYZ);
- Successfully represented as lead counsel Iranian investors against the Republic of Korea, in an arbitration under the UNCITRAL rules, in which the Tribunal held that a governmental organ abused its sovereign capacity in intervening in the closing of the acquisition of a state asset, and this moreover on pretextual grounds, whereas the underlying reasons were due to a shift in the Republic of Korea’s political policy (Mohammad Reza Dayyani, et al. v. The Republic of Korea, PCA Case No. 2015-38);
- Currently representing as lead counsel UAE company Trasta against Libya in an ad hoc arbitration initiated under the OIC Agreement (PCA Case No. 2020-09) and against a Sovereign Libyan entity in many ICC arbitrations relating to a joint-venture for the ownership and operation of a refinery in Libya (ICC case Nos. 24408/AYZ; 268284/AYZ/ELU (c-26285/AYZ);
- Advised one of the largest Czech energy group in its dispute with a leading French energy group arising out of a fire in a power generating unit while in the course of a share purchase agreement
- President of the Tribunal in a SIAC arbitration between multiple Indian claimants and a Japanese company in relation to the interpretation and execution of a shareholders’ agreement in the energy sector in India (SIAC Case No. 371/2017) [Hamid Gharavi];
- President of the Tribunal in an LCIA arbitration between two Mauritius and Cayman claimant companies, and six respondents of Indian and other nationalities, in relation to the breach of a shareholder and subscription agreement in a major Indian group (LCIA Case No. 183927) [Hamid Gharavi];
- President of the Tribunal in a USD 1 billion institutional arbitration between Brazilian companies in relation to share purchase agreements (ICC Case No. 18735/CA/ASM) [Yves Derains];
- President of the Tribunal in an ICC arbitration between a Spanish company and an Italian company in relation to the enforcement of the sale of shares of a French company (ICC Case No. 26650/JPP) [Yves Derains]; and
- Co-arbitrator in an ICC arbitration between a South American company and a Western European company relating to a merger in the sector of cement (ICC Case No. 14144/CO) [Yves Derains].