Turkish tanker owner Mubariz Mansimov’s Palmali Holding has failed in a bid to overturn an arbitration court order to pay compensation to Azerbaijan state oil and gas company Socar.
Malta Today reported that the Malta Appeals Court upheld an arbitration decision in the country to back a decision taken at the High Court in London.
The arbitration ruling was made in February 2021 in London. This awarded more than $132m to Socar, bringing Palmali’s bill to $244.5m.
Socar had demanded enforcement of the London arbitration award made against Palmali unit Palmali International Holding Company in 2021.
The compensation order arose due to a failed joint venture between the two companies.
Mansimov appealed the request to enforce the decision in Malta.
Azerbaijan-born Mansimov had based most of his shipping empire on the island. His assets there were frozen last year through an injunction filed in a separate case by creditor Sberbank of Russia.
The shipowner argued he was not subject to Maltese court orders because he was not a citizen of the country. And he claimed he had been denied a fair hearing in London.
The appeals court ruled the London decision targeted assets found in Malta, and that this was not dependent on whether he was a resident.
Chasing debts
The Sberbank case pertains to Palmali’s alleged efforts to evade loan repayment obligations.
Palmali was found to have tried to fraudulently bankrupt Maltese subsidiaries as the bank chased debts of $194m, Malta Today reported.
Palmali LLC, the bankrupt Russian subsidiary, saw its 46-ship fleet sold off to Sberbank in 2020.
Mansimov was released from jail in Turkey in March 2021, after receiving a five-year suspended sentence relating to charges of links to an outlawed organisation headed by Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Palmali has said there was no evidence to support the false claims, which Mansimov emphatically denied.
In 2015, Mansimov was listed by Forbes as being worth $1.3bn, with a portfolio including dairy products, media, resorts and planes, as well as tankers.
In December, the tycoon told Reuters his group was profiting from Ukrainian cargo contracts after a torrid few years.
Palmali was plotting newbuildings to capitalise on sunflower oil exports in the Black Sea.
Mansimov said his Istanbul-based operation has become the top carrier for Ukraine’s sunflower oil and plans to expand further in this business.
He added that Palmali would order 10 combination carriers with a capacity of 15,000 dwt in 2024 to transport wet and dry cargoes.
The group now operates about 30 ships, mostly chemical tankers of between 6,000 dwt and 20,000 dwt.
