Not Only Lone Star... Government Currently Handling 6 ISDS Lawsuits Including Elliott

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) with the foreign private equity fund Lone Star has concluded after 10 years. However, our government continues to engage in cross-border "money disputes."

According to the Ministry of Justice on the 31st, a total of 10 ISDS cases have been filed against the Republic of Korea. Among them, 4 cases, including the recent Lone Star case, have been concluded, while 6 cases are currently ongoing.

The longest-standing ISDS is the $770 million (approximately 1.03 trillion KRW) claim filed in July 2018 by the US-based hedge fund Elliott Management against our government.

Elliott, a shareholder of Samsung C&T, filed the ISDS claiming losses due to pressure from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Pension Service to vote in favor during the approval process of the merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015.

Around the same time, another US-based hedge fund, Mason Capital Management, also claimed losses during the Samsung C&T-Cheil Industries merger process and filed an ISDS worth $200 million.

In October of the same year, Schindler Holding AG, a Swiss elevator company, filed an ISDS worth $190 million, alleging that the government was responsible for losses incurred during Hyundai Elevator's paid-in capital increase process.

There are also ISDS cases filed by individual investors. In July 2020, a Chinese investor filed an ISDS worth $150 million, claiming that after receiving loans worth several hundred billion KRW domestically and failing to repay them, resulting in loss of collateral, they did not receive adequate protection from our government.

In May of the following year, another foreign investor filed an ISDS worth $5.37 million, alleging property damage due to land expropriation caused by a redevelopment project in Busan.

In October last year, the Iranian Dayani family filed their second ISDS against the Korean government, pointing out issues such as delayed compensation payments.

Previously, the Dayani family filed an ISDS worth 93.5 billion KRW against the government in 2015 after the contract deposit was confiscated by creditors during the acquisition process of Daewoo Electronics. The arbitration tribunal ruled that our government pay approximately 73 billion KRW to the Dayani side, but the government faced difficulties in compensation payments due to sanctions against Iran and restrictions on financial transactions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.