Getma Asks U.S. Court to Enforce Guinea Damages Claim

Getma International, a French cargo company seeking damages over a canceled port contract in Guinea, filed a claim in a U.S. court to get the West African nation to pay 38.5 million euros ($49 million) awarded by arbitrators.

Getma is seeking damages plus interest, according to a filing with Washington federal court by the Paris-based company on Sept. 23. Guinea’s decision to annul a 25-year concession to run a container terminal in the capital of Conakry in 2011 breached the French operator’s contract, the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration of Abidjan ruled in May.

Guinea President Alpha Conde canceled the license citing a “breach of dealer obligations,” he said in a statement broadcast on state-owned radio in 2011. A government spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Getma is a unit of NCT Necotrans.

Guinea is also in a dispute with Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and his BSG Resources Ltd. BSGR filed an arbitration request this month with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes after it was stripped of rights this year to the largest untapped iron-ore deposit. BSGR says it lost the rights to the Simandou project unlawfully “through a deeply flawed process based on unreliable and untested evidence.”

The case is Getma International v. Republic of Guinea, 14-01616, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).