Giving Tata Sons a breather, a London court has allowed it to appeal against an order that allowed NTT DoCoMo to enforce a $1.17 billion arbitration award. Tata Sons has been given 23 days to file its application with London’s Commercial Court.
On Wednesday, NTT DoCoMo had bagged an order from the same court against Tata Sons, allowing it to enforce the arbitration award in England.
This could hit the Tatas’ efforts to sell Tata Steel’s business in the UK and other parts of Europe. According to sources close to the Japanese telecom major, legal action could be taken in the new few days seeking attachment of Tata assets in these countries in a bid to force the Indian conglomerate to pay up $1.17 billion in damages.
‘Not enforceable’
However, a Tata spokesperson said: “ The arbitral award cannot be enforced until the end of the 23-day period, or until any application made by Tata Sons has been finally decided upon.
“Further, the UK assets of Tata Steel and Jaguar Land Rover are not owned by Tata Sons. These are subsidiaries of Indian public listed companies of which Tata Sons is a promoter with a minority shareholding of not more than 30-35 per cent.
“These companies are not party to the arbitration proceedings, and no award has been issued against them. It follows that the award cannot be enforced against those companies.”
The 23-day breather pre-empts any legal action by NTT DoCoMO in Germany, which could have dampened Tata Steel’s talks with ThyssenKrupp to form a joint venture to manage the plant in UK.
“NTT DoCoMo is going after assets owned by Tata Sons in countries outside India as part of its enforcement strategy. This is in addition to legal action being undertaken by the company in India,” said the source close to NTT DoCoMo.
The dispute between the two sides dates back to January 2015 when Japan’s NTT DoCoMo filed an arbitration request with the London Court of International Arbitration against Tata Sons for failing to find a buyer for its stake in Tata Teleservices.