Dispute with Greeks over RTB Bor not over – New hearing with Mytilineos in 2019 in Athens?

Although the decision of the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva, according to which the state of Serbia is to pay around USD 30 million to the Greek company Mytilineos, was thought to have put and end to the case in question, as Novosti learns, the biggest Serbian producer of copper and gold is facing another dispute with the Greeks in 2019, this time at the court in Athens. The Serbian defense team will try, as the Belgrade newspaper learns, to dispute the procedure, using the argument that the arbitration was already completed in Switzerland several days ago.

The information available to the newspaper says that the Greek company, which signed a contract on strategic partnership with RTB Bor in the mid-1990s, at the time of the sanctions imposed against Serbia by the international community, is using the clauses from the contract according to which “all contented issues are under the jurisdiction for the court in Athens”.

Nobody in RTB Bor wanted to comment on what the subject of the procedure is exactly, but it is almost certain that Mytilineos will try to collect all its debts at the court in the capital of Greece. The company asked for a payment of EUR 65 million in interest and lost profit at the arbitration in Geneva, but the court decided to nearly halve the amount.

In the mid-1990s, with the state of Serbia as the mediator, the Greek company signed a contract on strategic partnership with RTB Bor. They allegedly invested around USD 17 million in the working assets at the time, but also supplied RTB Bor with the copper concentrate. There was a plan to build a new smelter, worth around USD 130 million. The exact debt of RTB Bor towards Mytilineos can only be seen in the Bor-based company's books. However, those familiar with the circumstances claim that the Greeks failed to meet their obligations even then.

– The debts towards the Greeks for the copper were incurred at the time the metal cost USD 1,600 per ton. However, in filing the suit, they included the most favorable price of the red metal from the London Metal Exchange in the calculations and reached the amount of EUR 65 million – the Serbian defense team says.

The indisputable fact is that the RTB Bor books say that the debt amounts to USD 17 million and 4,000 tons of copper, produced from the concentrate delivered to RTB Bor by Mytilineos. Instead of repaying the debt, the money was allegedly used in 2000 to pay the RTB Bor's workers' salaries.

There is also an unofficial announcement that London's Standard Bank, which has bought out all the claims the multinational company Glencore had towards RTB Bor, will try to collect its claims in court. It was mentioned earlier that there had been an agreement with the English on the write-off of 51% of the claims, which amount to around EUR 78 million, and the payment of the remaining amount in installments, but it is not known whether the agreement has come into effect.

Serbia Zijin Copper doo Bor

Vlada Republike Srbije

Glencore International AG Switzerland

RTB Bor

Government of Serbia

Mytilineos

dispute between RTB Bor and Mytilineos

Athens

International Court of Arbitration Geneva

Standard Bank

Glencore