Cripps team secures multi-million dollar win for international manufacturing client

Cripps’ commercial dispute resolution team has successfully advised Noksel çelik Boru Sanayi A.Ş., a specialist Turkish steel pipe manufacturer in a complex cross-border contractual dispute against Bemaco Steel Limited, its director and other associated companies registered in Spain, Samoa and the pacific island of Niue.

The claim, deriving from a multi-million dollar trading balance, was fiercely challenged at every stage by the Defendants who sought to raise a US$23M counter-claim and issued multiple interim applications as part of the proceedings.

The trading relationship was governed by Turkish law and competing expert evidence was produced to the Court on how the contract should be interpreted, with our client’s expert (Professor Sitki Anlam Altay) being preferred. Expert evidence was also needed to determine the trade balance, with our client instructing Ian Clemmence of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

This complex and hard-fought claim culminated in a two-week trial in the High Court, where the judge found in our client’s favour in almost every aspect of the dispute, dismissing the Defendant’s counterclaim and awarding judgment in our client’s favour for US$5.6m plus interest and costs.

The Cripps team was led by Joanna Ford, Tom Bourne and Moya Faulkner, with support from Hannah Proctor, Chisom Nwachukwu, Kate Hunter, Jasprit Kaur and Matthew Wood.

Our clients Turkish advisors, Kabine Law Office, were led by Tuvan Yalim and Özgecan Korkmaz and supported by Gülce Keskin, Deniz Güneri, and K. Berkay Arslan.

Siddharth Dhar and Mark Belshaw from Essex Court Chambers acted as counsel.

Cenk Atik, Deputy General Manager of Financial & Administrative Affairs at Noksel, commented: “The Cripps team was diligent, attentive and on top of things throughout the proceedings. We were successful in almost all of our claims and Cripps’s assistance in attaining that result was very valuable.”