LBCI wins another arbitration against Al-Waleed
July 4, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has lost another arbitration award brought by Lebanon’s LBC International, and its chairman Pierre el Daher.
Beirut-based LBCI has been the subject of multiple owners over the past few years, and the allegations concern Al-Waleed’s stewardship of the broadcaster, and which resulted in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris awarding LBCI $19.5 million in aggregated penalties and damages, plus $2.6 million in legal costs and expenses.
According to an LBCI statement, “The [arbitration] award has decided that Al-Waleed bin Talal’s companies have breached several of their obligations under the Cooperation and Services Agreement signed between these companies and LBCI, and that they have terminated the Agreement with LBCI arbitrarily and unlawfully, causing tremendous damages to LBCI since 2012.”
An earlier decision in July 2015 by the ICC tribunal ordered that Al-Waleed’s Rotana businesses must return the LBC trademarks, in return for a token payment of $1 and that the Prince pay the costs and expenses of the arbitration action. The LBCI statement says that Prince Al-Waleed’s companies have yet to comply with the tribunal’s ruling.
Al-Waleed became the majority owner of LBCI back in 2008 when he bought out Sheikh Saleh Kamel. Rupert Murdoch became involved via an investment in the Prince’s Rotana media group in 2010 and when Al-Waleed was an investor in News Corp.