THE CABLE
A commercial court in London, United Kingdom (UK), has granted Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd final charging orders over two residential properties owned by Nigeria in the UK.
Lisa Sullivan, a master at the court, granted the final charging orders to the Chinese firm following Nigeria’s prior opposition to the orders’ jurisdiction.
ZHONGSHAN FUCHENG VS NIGERIA
The Chinese firm seeks to enforce a $70 million investment treaty award against Nigeria.
In 2010, Zhongshan, through Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group Co. Ltd (Zhuhai), its Chinese parent company, acquired rights to develop a free trade zone in Ogun state.
A year later, Zhongshan set up Zhongfu International Investment (NIG) FZE (Zhongfu), a Nigerian entity, to manage the project under the permission of the Ogun state government.
Things took a different turn in July 2016 when the company accused the state government of abruptly moving to terminate its appointment while attempting to install a new manager for the free trade zone.
Subsequently, Zhongfu initiated an investment treaty arbitration against Nigeria under the bilateral investment treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Nigeria (the China-Nigeria BIT).
The arbitrators had ruled that Nigeria was in breach of its obligations under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan compensation of around $70 million.
In January 2022, the Chinese company initiated a case to seek enforcement of the arbitration award.
Nigeria pleaded state immunity but was turned away by Sara Cockerill, a high court judge, who said the country abused the time frame for appealing arbitral awards.
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