{"id":3271,"date":"2024-08-22T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2024-08-22T22:14:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T22:14:10","slug":"ghanas-regina-house-in-london-taken-over-by-trafigura-due-to-134m-judgment-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=3271","title":{"rendered":"Ghana’s Regina House in London taken over by Trafigura due to $134m judgment debt”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Joy News can confirm that Oil conglomerate Trafigura<\/a>\u2019s Ghana Power Generation Company has taken over one of the country\u2019s most important commercial properties, the Regina House in London, following the failure of the government to pay up a $134 million judgment debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For four years Trafiguara has been unsuccessful in getting the government of government to pay up the judgement debt awarded to the energy firm after the abrupt termination of a power purchase agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation forced Trafigura to secure another Judgement in the United States courts which awarded a mandatory interest on the default of 111.4 million dollars which remains the arrears to be paid by the Republic of Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame has told Joy News it is up to the Finance Ministry to expedite action on the payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the latest Joy News report on the United States District Court ruling, Vice President of Imani Africa Bright Simons took to social media platform, X (Twitter) to state that one of Ghana\u2019s most important commercial properties, the Regina House in London has been taken over by Trafigura following the judgment debt award by a tribunal in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bright Simons, information on the seizure is being concealed by the Government of Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy News cheques, however, have confirmed that the Regina House which belongs to the Government of Ghana is now under receivership by Trafigura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghana\u2019s High Commission to the United Kingdom, Papa Owusu-Ankomah in an exclusive Interview with Joy News Thursday morning, disclosed that until the bills are settled Trafigura\u2019s GPGC will be in full control over revenues accruing from the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is therefore calling for more negotiations to avert the implications of this compounding interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil we pay in full or come into an arrangement to pay them,\u201d Papa Owusu-Ankomah told Joy News, Trafigura will remain in control over the receivership of the Regina House and its proceeds, admitting also that \u201c(Ghana) is now facing financial challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 26, 2021, a UK tribunal issued a Final Award after it concluded that Ghana breached its contractual obligations by terminating a power purchase agreement with GPGC on February 18, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghana argued that the foreign power company had failed to meet certain contractual conditions, leading to the termination. However, the tribunal disagreed, awarding GPGC $134,348,661 in damages, calculated based on an Early Termination Payment formula in the purchase agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award included an interest rate of six-month USD LIBOR plus 6%, and reimbursement of GPGC\u2019s arbitration fees and expenses totalling $3,309,877.74.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the ruling, Ghana only made partial payments totalling $1,897,692.40, leaving a significant outstanding balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After unsuccessful attempts to secure the remaining payment from Ghana, GPGC filed a case in the U.S. District Court on January 19, 2024, under the New York Convention and Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act, seeking to recover the compounding debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court documents reveal that the U.S. court served Ghana with the petition on January 23, 2024, through Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana\u2019s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documents were delivered in Ghana on January 29, 2024, with a signed confirmation of receipt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ghana failed to respond by the March 29, 2024 deadline and did not appear in the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court determined that it had jurisdiction over the case, citing the New York Convention, which the U.S. has ratified, recognising UK arbitral awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court also noted that Ghana had expressly waived its sovereign immunity and committed to international arbitration under the power purchase agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his August 6, 2024, memorandum opinion, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg emphasised that the arbitral award between the non-U.S. parties arose out of a commercial relationship, which falls under the New York Convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Convention requires that member states recognise and enforce such awards, regardless of the parties\u2019 citizenship or location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the judge did not grant pre-judgment interest to GPGC, the court will award post-judgment interest at the rate specified in U.S. codes, adding to the financial burden on Ghana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joy News can confirm that Oil conglomerate Trafigura\u2019s Ghana Power Generation Company has taken over one of the country\u2019s most important commercial properties, the Regina House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}