The British liquidator of New World Resources (NWR) is threatening to sue
the Czech state in connection to it taking over the coal miner OKD,
formerly a part of the energy company, the business daily Hospodářské
noviny reports.
A regional Czech court in October 2017 approved the reorganisation of OKD
as proposed by its management and approved by creditors. Two months later,
the European Commission approved the takeover by state-owned company
Prisko, which paid CZK 80 million for OKD’s mining assets. Appeals by NWR
and others against the OKD reorganisation plan were rejected by a Czech
court in June 2018.
A partner at NWR’s liquidator, Jenner & Block, has now said in a
letter to Prisko, taken to be a pre-litigation challenge, that OKD’s
mining business was in effect illegally nationalised, resulting in damages
of hundreds of million of euro against NWR, according to Hospodářské
noviny, which has seen a copy of the letter.
OKD creditors have filed claims of over CZK 20 billion in court, but the
administrator has rejected the lion’s share of the claims. OKD continues
to mine coal and employs around 9,500 people.