International Arbitration

Digital Education Content Company

Background

An Indian Digital Education company entered into a Build Operate Transfer contract with an African State for providing software and hardware for education. Upon completion of delivery, the project owner did not pay the contractual dues and also did not cooperate in the last-mile execution of the contract i.e. installation in 480 of the 500 schools. The Contractor initiated an arbitration for a claim of USD 3.8m. The initial arbitration had to be discontinued due to a paucity of litigation funding and a weak litigation strategy. 

Our Role

Our team designed the arbitration and litigation strategy as follows

  • Liticap recommenced international arbitration in September 2019 with a more accurate claim of $12m.
  • LitiCap worked with Kigali International Arbitration Centre for the appointment of an international tribunal with European, Asian and African representation on tribunal, and prepared all major submissions in-house.
  • The defendant made 2 attempts to drive our client to bankruptcy by raising claims of close to $1m, thereby attempting to render the contract terminated, along with our client’s claims therein.
  • In the first attempt, the Creditor Bank raised a claim of $500,000 under a receivable securitization contract. LitiCap successfully upheld an auction of delivered goods in a local court, thereby settling banks dues, circumventing any payments, and raising additional claims of $1.5m against defendant for damages.
  • In the second attempt, Defendant called upon the performance guarantee of our client. Liticap successfully thwarted this attempt by obtaining 4 procedural orders from the tribunal, compelling defendant to commit in writing not to seize the guarantee till the conclusion of the arbitration.
  • Aside from litigation expenses, LitiCap has made available top-notch legal talent from its network of world-class arbitration specialists. LitiCap has also provided significant entrepreneurial and strategic support to help manage business cash flows and growth efforts while insulating the operations from the burden of litigation.

Current Status

All submissions have been completed and the final hearing, which was earlier scheduled for May 2020, is now rescheduled to October as virtual hearing. The award is expected before the end of the year.