Kuwait’s Agility awarded $1.65 bln in dispute with Iraq’s Korek Telecom

Kuwaiti logistic firm Agility said on Tuesday one of its subsidiaries and an affiliate have been awarded $1.65 billion in damages in an arbitration case against Iraq’s Korek Telecom and prominent Iraqi Kurdish businessman Sirwan Barzani.

Agility said that the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce had awarded subsidiary Agility Public Warehousing Company and International Holdings Ltd, the Agility affiliate, the damages in relation to allegations of fraud and corruption against Korek and Barzani.

The award is final and binding, the company said in a statement.

“Mr. Barzani and Korek firmly deny the allegations against them and are considering all options, including whether to seek to set aside the Award,” a Korek spokesperson said in a statement sent via Hawthorn Advisors.

“Korek is disappointed by these findings. This is not the end of the matter, and the company vigorously rejects any allegation that it set out to deceive IT (the joint venture formed by Agility and Orange).”

In a related case in 2021, the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, which handles disputes between international investors, rejected a claim by Agility against the Iraqi state to recover more than $380 million it said it had lost.

“We hope that this outcome brings resolution and closure to the issue and that the respondents will now honour their obligations in a manner commensurate with that of businesses operating in countries that respect the rule of law,” Agility Vice Chairman Tarek Sultan said in the statement on Tuesday. Reuters